Third day of rail disruption in and out of London due to train cracks
Rail services on Great Western Railway (GWR) and London North Eastern Railway (LNER) are being disrupted for a third day due to cracks in trains.
Rail services on Great Western Railway (GWR) and London North Eastern Railway (LNER) are being disrupted for a third day due to cracks in trains.
GWR advised passengers with tickets for long-distance journeys on Monday "not to travel'' as there is "no service or an extremely limited service'' between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, Swansea, Penzance, Hereford and Cheltenham Spa.
LNER is running a reduced service on the East Coast Main Line, which runs between London King's Cross and Edinburgh via Peterborough, York and Newcastle.
The operators' Hitachi Class 800 trains were withdrawn from service on Saturday for safety checks after cracks were discovered in part of the chassis of some trains.
Robert Nisbet, director of nations and regions at industry body the Rail Delivery Group, said if inspected trains were found to have "tiny cracks'' then replacement trains may be deployed while repairs are carried out.
Andrew Barr, the group CEO of Hitachi Rail, said:
"Our main focus right now is getting trains returning into service and ensuring we can do that safely.
"Alongside that we are looking at the long-term fixes that might be necessary.
"Right now, our primary focus is assessment of the safety."
Dan Panes, from Great Western Railway, said:
"Hitachi have got to do a significant piece of work to identify which trains are safe to come back into service.
"The week ahead is really going to be about us running what we can and what we are able to, hopefully with more trains available to us."
The government's urging the companies to minimise disruption.