2000-11-09 Rail industry brief Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions)

2000-11-02 Prescott maintains momentum towards rail recovery (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions)

2000-10-27 Lord Macdonald welcomes Railtrack weekend blitz on track repairs (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions)

2000-10-26 Prescott calls on industry to work together to produce a national track recovery plan (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions)

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date 16 November 2000
source Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
type Press release

note News Release 703

Passengers should now see a steady improvement in rail services following the rail industry's announcement of further progress in the national track recovery programme.

The Prime Minister today called industry heads to a meeting at Downing Street on the national track recovery plan.

The recovery plans will deliver:

Sustainable timetables for all train companies from Monday;

more accurate and accessible passenger information, notably through improvements to the National Rail Enquiry Service and a planned increase in national and local press adverts;


an early announcement on passenger compensation.


Commenting on the progress after the meeting Minister for Transport Lord Macdonald said:

"Passengers should now see a steady improvement in their rail services with sustainable timetables and more accurate information on train times. Passengers have been very patient and I'm pleased that the rail industry has redoubled its efforts to improve services and information while this essential work is continuing. I'm also pleased to be able to report that the industry is making passenger compensation a top priority and an announcement on this will be made shortly.

"The rail industry has also reached another milestone on the way to recovery with re-railing largely complete by the end of the year although work on replacing points will take longer. Services will continue to return to normal although passengers on some routes will experience delays until all the work is complete."

The industry confirmed with the Prime Minister today that:



an accelerated schedule is in place to rerail the remaining 230 miles on which there remain some 500 emergency speed restrictions;


to shorten the period of disruption, the production of switches and crossings is being doubled while 850 are replaced;


virtually all serious current disruptions will have been dealt with by the end of the year;


the industry are considering, with the HSE, whether any of the speed restrictions could safely be eased pending rerailing;


half of train operating companies are already operating normal or near normal services;


some disruptions will continue where flooding has damaged infrastructure and to enable rerailing to take place;


discussions are taking place between the industry and the shadow Strategic Rail Authority to finalise a package of compensation measures for passengers;


sustainable timetables, which will be in force for all train companies from Monday, with the prospect of steady improvements over the coming weeks;


more accurate passenger information, notably through improvements to the National Rail Enquiry Service and a planned increase in national and local press adverts.



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Railhub Archive ::: 2000-11-16 DET-001