Rail disruption set to continue into next week after train cracks found
Travel disruption caused by the discovery of cracks in some high speed trains is expected to continue into next week, a rail industry group has warned.
Robert Nisbet, of the Rail Delivery Group, said initial inspections of 183 trains taken out of service on Saturday should conclude by the end of Sunday.
But he warned that disruption was expected to "carry on for a few days".
Two of the UK's busiest rail firms are warning people not to travel on Sunday.
On Saturday Hitachi 800 trains operated by Great Western Railway and London North Eastern Railway trains were taken out of service for safety inspections.
Hitachi has apologised and said it was investigating the issue.
Mr Nisbet, whose organisation represents train operators and Network rail, apologised to anyone affected by the disruption.
He said rail firms were running as many services as possible, including rail replacement services, in addition to laying on extra staff at affected stations, relaxing ticket acceptance rules and offering compensation for delays.
Mr Nisbet told BBC Breakfast that it was "gratifying to see the speed" at which initial inspections were taking place. He said he understood that Hitachi engineers would complete these inspections by the end of Sunday.
But he cautioned that he was still "expecting some disruption to carry on for a few days".
He said: "It's impossible for me to say exactly how long that is going to take, we are obviously going through this as quickly as possible but we don't want to rush it.
"We want to sure that all of those trains are thoroughly inspected and cleared and are put into service when things are ready.
"But there may well be a knock on effect for some of those timetables into next week."
On Saturday railway minister Chris Heaton-Harris warned Great Western Railway services in particular were likely to face continued disruption.
Andrew Barr, CEO of Hitachi Rail, said the decision to withdraw the trains had been taken because of cracks found on the metal that linked the train's body with the underside of the train- known as the bogie.
All high-speed Great Western Railway services between London, Bristol, Cardiff and Penzance were cancelled on Saturday.
Local services are running, but they are expected to be very busy and rail replacement services were are limited.
"Customers are advised not to travel on Sunday, 9 May and refunds will be provided," Great Western Railway said.
"Once trains have been checked and cleared, we hope to be able to release them back into service as soon as possible."
The company earlier said cracks were detected on "more than one" Hitachi 800 train, so all 93 in its fleet were being inspected as a precaution.
London North Eastern Railway said it was experiencing "significant disruption" to services due to precautionary checks on its trains.
The disruption to LNER trains means there will be a limited to no service on the East Coast Main Line - between Edinburgh, Newcastle, York and London.
"We apologise for the disruption caused and are advising customers not to travel on Sunday, 9 May," the operator said.
It added that because of this issue, it was also unable to run trains between Edinburgh and Inverness/Aberdeen.
Following disruption on Saturday morning, Hull Trains said its services would resume as normal following "thorough checks by Hitachi" on its fleet of Class 800 series trains.
But the operator added that it expected services to be "extremely busy" and could not guarantee that social distancing guidelines would be adhered to.
TransPennine Express said it would be able to reintroduce some trains into service following safety checks on Saturday afternoon.
But it expected the disruption would continue to have "a significant impact" on services between Newcastle and York for the rest of the day.
Rail replacement coaches
LNER passengers affected by cancellations can use their tickets on the following operators' services instead:
- ScotRail between Aberdeen and Edinburgh
- Avanti West Coast between London Euston and Manchester for customers with an open ticket
- TransPennine Express between Manchester, Leeds and York
- East Midlands Railway between London St Pancras International and Sheffield
- Northern services between Sheffield, Leeds and York and via any other "reasonable" route
- Thameslink services between London, Stevenage and Peterborough
- CrossCountry between Leeds, York and Edinburgh
Rail replacement coaches are operating at York, Newcastle and Edinburgh, and also between Doncaster and Peterborough.
LNER says affected customers' tickets will be valid up to and including Sunday 16 May, though a new reservation will need to be made.
GWR passengers can use their tickets on the following services:
- Avanti West Coast trains between Birmingham New Street and London Euston
- London Northwestern Railway trains between Birmingham New Street and London Euston
- West Midlands Railway trains between Hereford/Worcester and Birmingham New Street
- Chiltern Railways via any "reasonable" route
- CrossCountry via any "reasonable" route
Hitachi Class 800 train
- The Class 800 is electric - but almost half have a diesel engine enabling them to operate on lines that have not been electrified
- Formal orders for the trains were made in 2012 and 2013 at a cost of around £5.7bn for a 27.5 year programme, including maintenance
- The Class 800 began regular service for Great Western Railway in October 2017 - but an embarrassing start saw air conditioning units leak on to passengers on the first Class 800 journey from London to Bristol
- In May 2019, they began service on the East Coast Main Line, with operator LNER branding the train Azuma - or "east" in Japanese
- They were hailed by operators as helping to increase capacity and reduce journey times
- The trains were assembled at Hitachi's plant in Newton Aycliffe in County Durham
'Very difficult process'
Roger Ford, industry and technology editor at the magazine Modern Railways, said the problem was with the weld cracking underneath the train's body shell - which led to about 180 trains being taken out of service for inspection.
He told BBC business correspondent Katy Austin that while body shell cracking would not "cause the trains to crash or disintegrate or anything like that", action needed to be taken, because if metal fatiguing was allowed to continue, the "cracks will spread, and the body shell strength will be weakened".
Mr Ford added that repairing aluminium trains is a "very difficult process" because of the electronic equipment inside them.
He said: "If you get a welding torch up against the [electronics]... it can fry [them] so the first thing you have to do is take all the electronics out, disconnect all the electrical equipment, that takes a day or two, then you do the repair, then you have to put it all back again."
He added there were about 1,000 carriages to deal with, so it would be "quite a considerable job".
Last month, six of the trains were taken out of service by GWR after hairline cracks were found in the suspension system during routine maintenance.
Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, said passengers should not be charged extra in future to pay for repairs.
"This rolling stock must not be allowed back into service until we are 100% certain these trains are safe.
"It's important to point out that the affected trains are relatively new, in which case the manufacturers should foot the bill for any repairs, not passengers or taxpayers."
Additional reporting by Katy Austin, BBC News business correspondent
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May 09, 2021 at 07:36PM
By Emma Harrison
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57042384
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