Thousands facing rail chaos

RAILTRACK is to close a 25-mile stretch of Britain's busiest railway, causing chaos for tens of thousands of passengers and triggering a £50m compensation claim from Virgin Trains. Every weekend from August until Christmas, the West Coast main line linking London, Manchester and Glasgow will close.

More than 60,000 passengers who use the line on Saturdays and Sundays will be forced to take buses between Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire and Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, adding up to two hours to the usual 5 1/2-hour journey.

Virgin, the sole operator of long-distance trains on the line, is furious that network operator Railtrack cannot complete vital work on the much-delayed £6.1bn upgrade at night. The project, which has already ballooned from £2.3bn, is running way behind schedule.

Railtrack initially demanded that the stretch should be shut down altogether for between four and six weeks - a move that industry insiders claim would have forced Virgin and two commuter rail operators that use the line, Silverlink and Metro, out of business.

Virgin executives believe that Railtrack is insisting on daytime repairs because it is the cheapest option. They say the £16bn modernisation programme for the London Underground system will take place mainly at night, causing less disruption.

One senior rail executive said: 'It is quite incredible that Railtrack cannot do the work late at night. If it had been British Rail handling the work, an instruction would have gone out insisting that repairs were done at the most convenient time for passengers.

'We have grave suspicions that Railtrack has gone for this option because it is cheaper.'

Virgin said: 'The West Coast upgrade was first proposed in 1985 and we are all paying the price of 15 years of delay in getting the physical work started'.

The revelation that Railtrack wants to close a section of the busiest route in Britain is only the latest in a series of blunders on the line that has cost Virgin hundreds of millions of pounds. Virgin is already claiming £700m from Railtrack for all the delays. So far, though, Railtrack has offered only £400m.

The first phase of the project, which will allow Virgin to run a fleet of 53 new tilting trains running at 120mph, was due for completion next summer. But it now looks unlikely that it will be finished before well into 2003.

The timetable for the second phase, enabling trains to run at speeds of 140mph by 2005, now looks certain to slip - if it happens at all. Virgin insists it has a watertight contract with Railtrack that will leave the track operator facing huge penalties if it misses deadlines for carrying out the work.

Railtrack said: 'You cannot do work on this scale in four-hour sessions very late at night. This is a huge project and you must have a sensible amount of time to complete it. The train operators have been widely consulted on this work.'

The repairs to the West Coast line will go ahead even when Railtrack, which is in administration, is turned into a not-for-profit company called Network Rail. This is expected to happen about September.

Unless Virgin agrees a compensation figure, it will further delay moves to get Railtrack out of administration, causing more embarrassment for Transport Secretary Stephen Byers.