11,000 years of train delays

Passengers have suffered a total of 11,000 years of delays since the railways were privatised.

More than one billion journeys have been disrupted in the last eight years, according to research compiled by the Liberal Democrats.

Their figures, compiled from Strategic Rail Authority statistics, show that during the first three years of privatisation the number of trains running on time was similar to that of British Rail, which the private operators replaced.

After that, however, punctuality worsened, particularly after the Hatfield derailment in October 2000. That was caused by a broken rail and led Railtrack, now Network Rail (NR), to replace hundreds of miles of worn, cracked or suspect track throughout the country.

Industry experts said that the disruption to the national network at that time was the worst since the Second World War. Parts of the industry have still not fully recovered.

Despite record levels of spending, £5 billion a year, one in five trains still runs late. On some of London's crowded commuter routes the figure is worse, with one in four trains failing to run on schedule.

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) said today that it was harder to keep services on time, compared with the mid-Nineties, because the network now has 20 per cent more trains.

The tracks are so crowded that if one train suffers a small delay and blocks the line there is a huge knock-on effect.

An ATOC spokesman said: "We all know that punctuality is not what it was.

"But having slipped through Hatfield and its aftermath, punctuality is now improving again and passenger satisfaction levels are at a four-year high."

But NR, responsible for the tracks and signals, says it will take until 2009 to return to BR's average of 90 per cent of trains on time.

Delays are split roughly 50-50 between NR, when the infrastructure breaks down, and train operators.

John Thurso, Lib-Dem transport spokesman, said: The reality is that Labour cannot make the railways punctual. They are literally wasting passengers' time.

Eleven thousand years is too long for even the most patient commuter to wait."

The total was reached by adding the average delays of each passenger since privatisation. About 2.7 million passengers use the railways each day.

The figure comes as a survey revealed that 46 per cent of train passengers interviewed said that conditions were so bad on the railways it would cause them to switch votes at the general election.