The two train operators at the heart of the May timetabling chaos face possible fines for not keeping passengers properly informed, the rail regulator has said.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) launched a fresh investigation on Friday into whether Govia Thameslink Railway and Northern breached contractual requirements by failing to do what they could to provide “appropriate, accurate and timely information” before the changes to the train timetable and during the disruption that followed.
Thousands of trains were cancelled or ran seriously late in the wake of the rescheduling of Northern and GTR’s Thameslink and Great Northern services, with chaotic scenes at some stations where passengers complained that information on screens failed to match online information or the reality of trains on the tracks.
An interim report by the ORR into the timetable debacle was published last month and was heavily critical of the Department for Transport and Network Rail as well as the train operators, finding that “nobody took charge” even as it became clear there would be trouble with the rescheduling. The ORR said that its inquiry, led by chairman Stephen Glaister, had also “identified concerns” with information provided to passengers.
The regulator said GTR and Northern could have breached licence conditions requiring them to provide sufficient information for passengers “to plan and make their journeys with a reasonable degree of assurance, including when there is disruption”.
However, it said that opening its investigation, which should conclude by the end of next month, did not imply it had evidence of non-compliance by either company.
The passenger watchdog, Transport Focus, welcomed the investigation. Its chief executive, Anthony Smith, said: “Passengers were badly let down when new timetables descended into chaos on some Govia Thameslink and Northern routes. One thing that would have helped passengers work around these problems was accurate, timely and useful information – but in many cases that was not provided.“
Any fines could potentially be up to 10% of the companies’ turnover, although an ORR spokeswoman said they would be “proportionate”, or well below that ceiling.
A GTR spokesperson said: “We will cooperate fully with the ORR’s investigation.”
A Northern spokesperson said: “We are truly sorry for the inconvenience passengers experienced as a result of the May timetable change. The ORR’s own Glaister inquiry found that the root cause of the May timetable disruption was delays to new infrastructure, which did not leave enough time to train our drivers on the new routes and types of train.”
