Travel chaos as high-speed rail services cancelled after cracks found in trains
| Published date | 08 May 2021 |
Great Western Railway GWR, London North Eastern Railways LNER, Hull Trains and TransPennine Express services were experiencing "major disruption", said National Rail.
Hull Trains has said its services are back running as normal, but GWR, which operates 93 Hitachi 800 trains, warned that the problem could affect Sunday services as well.
The operators had warned of cancellations and severe delays while the cracks were investigated, with LNER urging passengers not to travel on its services on Saturday.
There is limited to no service on the East Coast, between Edinburgh, Newcastle, York and London.
All high-speed GWR services between London, Bristol, Cardiff and Penzance have been cancelled.
Hitachi Rail apologised for the disruption as passengers were told to check online journey planners if they decide to travel.
They told of their frustration and "train stress" as they tried to get to their destinations amid the travel chaos.
A Twitter user wrote to LNER: "Just had my third train of the day cancelled... the LNER website won't let me book a new seat reservation or cancel the old ones as I've made too many for one day.
"Can you arrange for this restriction to be lifted in times of disruption please"
Another user wrote in a reply to National Rail: "Okay but just 'not travelling' isn't an option for everyone. Is it all GWR trains Are they likely to be reinstated today"
National Rail responded: "I am unable to comment at this moment in time as we are waiting on updates from them."
'Train stress'
A third person wrote: "Train stress! Literally RAN through Reading station to get this train as all others cancelled."
Social media users encouraged passengers to be kind to rail staff during the disruption.
One wrote to LNER: "Just want to say a big thank you to all the staff onboard the 0648 GLC -KGX, they’ve gone over and above to make sure we’re all relaxed and happy, and been very informative too. Well done to you all at the social media team as well for being so helpful!"
Cancellations and severe delays were expected all day as dozens of Hitachi 800s are checked as a "precaution". It was unclear whether the disruption would carry over into Sunday.
Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said the rail industry has been asked to carry out a review into the matter.
He said: “Routine checks of Hitachi trains early this morning identified cracks on...
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