Over the last four days severe rail disruption across the United Kingdom has affected more than 250, 000 passengers and reports today suggest that such commotion looks likely to continue until Friday at the earliest.  Virgin trains have been informed that they will not have the West coast main line handed back to them until tomorrow, leading to a further 60, 000 people having their journeys disturbed.  However, even this assurance should be taken with a pinch of salt due to the string of earlier deadlines which have been missed.  Virgin’s own lack of confidence in such promises can be observed by the fact that they are keeping buses on standby to provide alternative transport, should the line not be repaired.

            The line has been blocked from London to Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool (amongst others) as a result of the late completion of engineering works at Rugby by Network Rail.  This is not the only delay effecting travellers in and out of London, however, as Liverpool Street Station, from which 60,000 commuters a day take trains to East Anglia, Essex and many of the capital’s suburbs, has been closed for much of the day due to Northwest Rail failing to complete the installation of new overhead cables.

            Though these disruptions should be resolved in a matter of days, this will not bring an end to the havoc being caused for train passengers, as the Office of Rail Regulation has announced an inquiry into the events of the last few days.  Furthermore, recent forecasts have warned those in the south east to expect heavy snow falls which, given previous occurrences of such weather, is most probably set to throw even more train services into disarray.