West Coast Main Line trains still late despite upgrades

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Forty per cent of the trains operating on the West Coast Main Line are running late despite the £9 billion spent upgrading the route, according to a claim made by a trade union on Monday.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) reported that it had obtained figures that show the punctuality of trains on the line connecting Glasgow and London fell at one point in April to 39.4 per cent.

For the entire month, on-time performance – which considers a long-distance train to be on time if it is up to 10 minutes late – reached 80 per cent. During the third week of April, however, the figure fell below 50 per cent for three days, according to the union.

A main reason for the poor punctuality performance was engineering work on the line over the Easter holiday. Buses replaced trains on several sections of the route on both Easter Saturday and Sunday, with some work continuing into Monday morning.

The holiday weekend engineering work was actually so disruptive that Virgin Trains suggested cross-borders passengers travelling from London should go via Edinburgh, on the National Express East Coast instead.

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