New train times: Rail chaos may last until August as bosses train staff

Rail chaos linked to new timetables is likely to continue until August due to a shortage of drivers, according to reports.

Bosses at Northern Rail have said large numbers of cancellations and delays could last for two months while staff at trained, the Times reported.

It comes after it emerged that the troubled firms were responsible for 1,000 cancelled and delayed trains in just one day, with MPs looking to investigate.

The admission on Friday is likely to anger passengers who have been forced to put up with disruption in the north and southeast since the new timetables were introduced on May 20.

Manfred Rudhart, chief executive of Arriva, Northern Rail’s parent company, said the company had been “thrown into chaos by trying to cater for the new timetables without the proper preparation time”.

In an interview with the Times, he added: “This is a bit like open heart surgery on the railway. We have to maintain the service as good as we can on a day-to-day basis while taking drivers off routes to train them.”

He told the newspaper delays could last until August.

Charles Horton, CEO of GTR, said: “We always said that delivering the biggest timetable change in generations would be challenging – but we are sorry that we have not been able to deliver the service that passengers expect.

“Delayed approval of the timetable led to an unexpected need to substantially adjust our plans and resources in an unexpectedly short timeframe. We fully understand that passengers want more certainty and are working very hard to bring greater consistency to the timetable as soon as possible.

“We will also be working with industry colleagues to establish a timetable that will progressively deliver improvement.”

The Standard has approached Northern Rail for comment.

Problems are also likely to persist on lines run by GTR, which operates four networks in the southeast of England.

Almost 1,000 trains were either cancelled or more than 30 minutes late on Wednesday, the equivalent to more than one in every eight scheduled services.

Britain's rail timetable is updated twice a year, but the latest version has many more changes than normal in a bid to improve punctuality and account for extra services and capacity following billions of pounds of investment.

The timing of all GTR and most Northern trains was changed, but all the new journeys needed to be individually approved by government-owned Network Rail, which is responsible for managing infrastructure.

Major disruption caused by the introduction of new timetables for the crisis-hit companies could also now be investigated by MPs.

Lilian Greenwood, chair of the Transport Select Committee, described the cancellation of hundreds of trains on the two networks as a "complete shambles".

She will ask the committee on Monday to "review the situation", which may lead to a full inquiry.

Ms Greenwood said: "The ongoing timetabling chaos is making the lives of passengers very difficult.

"The Transport Committee has discussed the problems and is watching the situation carefully."