‘Unreliability is creeping up’: What it’s like travelling on some of the worst rail routes for delays and cancellations
“The last thing I do before going to sleep at night is check the trains to see whether they’re running on time and then the first thing I do in the morning, before I reach for a cup of tea, is pick my phone up and check again. And then you can still get to the station and find it’s cancelled or delayed.”
Welcome to the world of Andrew Holstead, and the thousands of others like him who rely on Britain’s creaking railway network.
I joined Mr Holstead on his morning commute into Manchester Piccadilly aboard a TransPennine Express service.
It was the first leg of my journey across the country to find out what it’s like for customers on some of the worst routes for delays and cancellations.
Things got so bad on TransPennine earlier this year that the government took over running their services, not that Mr Holstead and his fellow passengers have noticed much improvement.
This morning’s train is late.
As we stand, squeezed in the train’s corridor because all the seats are taken, Mr Holstead pulls out his phone and shows me a spreadsheet of delays and cancellations.
“It’s getting worse at the moment, the unreliability is creeping up again,” he said.
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Andrew Holstead travels into Manchester Piccadilly for work
When we reach Manchester, I say goodbye to Mr Holstead and he heads to his office, a little late, and I chat to other regular train travellers.
Many say things are “fine” – and then go on to list the small, sometimes big, but regular inconveniences with their journeys in the last few weeks. There is a sort of shrug of resignation.
My next journey begins in Manchester, bound for London, on a service equally blighted by delays and cancellations.
Avanti West Coast broke records for unreliability this year, just before being given a new contract by the government.
The prime minister’s scrapping of the northern leg of HS2 put increased scrutiny on existing services between the North and South and whether they are up to the job.
The suspicion among passengers is that improvements promised from the money saved will go south, in the wrong sense of the phrase, just like HS2 did.
Mr Holstead keeps track of cancellations in a spreadsheet
My train actually arrives at Euston on time. Many of its passengers don’t though as they were due to be on an earlier service that was cancelled.
And the board at Euston tells me my train back to Manchester has also been cancelled.
My final journey is on a service that performs pretty well for reliability, even if it is the slowest inter-city route in the country.
It takes 48 minutes to cover the 19 miles from Chester to Liverpool, the scenery of the leafy Wirral at least providing a welcome distraction.
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Most passengers are quite content with the service although a young mum who moved to live next to a railway station because she doesn’t drive expressed frustration the trains sometimes skip that station up make up list time.
My experience of these journeys across the country is that passengers want to be able to trust and believe in the rail system, they want it to work.
The Rail Delivery Group says it will continue to focus on making rail services reliable and punctual.
A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “We continue to work closely with operators to ensure they provide the best possible experience for those using our railways and have been clear that we will hold them to account if they let passengers down.”
Talking to those passengers, it is clear no-one expects train services to be perfect, they just want them to be better.
Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Sky News that Britain is ready for a change of government after scolding the Conservatives over their handling of the economy and immigration after Brexit.
While insisting his petrochemicals conglomerate INEOS is apolitical, Sir Jim backed Brexit and spent last weekend with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Manchester United – the football club he now runs as minority owner.
“I’m sure Keir will do a very good job at running the country – I have no questions about that,” Sir Jim said in an exclusive interview.
“There’s no question that the Conservatives have had a good run,” he added. “I think most of the country probably feels it’s time for a change. And I sort of get that, really.”
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Sir Jim was a prominent backer of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum but now has issues with how Brexit was delivered by Tory prime ministers.
“Brexit sort of unfortunately didn’t turn out as people anticipated because… Brexit was largely about immigration,” Sir Jim said.
“That was the biggest component of that vote. People were getting fed up with the influx of the city of Southampton coming in every year. I think last year it was two times Southampton.
“I mean, no small island like the UK could cope with vast numbers of people coming into the UK.
“I mean, it just overburdens the National Health Service, the traffic service, the police, everybody.
“The country was designed for 55 or 60 million people and we’ve got 70 million people and all the services break down as a consequence.
“That’s what Brexit was all about and nobody’s implemented that. They just keep talking about it. But nothing’s been done, which is why I think we’ll finish up with the change of government.”
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UK needs to get ‘sharper on the business front’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has indicated an election is due this year but Monaco-based Sir Jim is unimpressed by the Conservatives’ handling of the economy.
“The UK does need to get a bit sharper on the business front,” he said. “I think the biggest objective for the government is to create growth in the economy.
“There’s two parts of the economy, there’s the services side of the economy and there’s the manufacturing side. And the manufacturing, unfortunately, has been sliding away now for the last 25 years.
“We were very similar in scale to Germany probably 25 years ago.
“But today we’re just a fraction of where Germany is and I think that isn’t healthy for the British economy… particularly when you think the north of England is very manufacturing based, and that talks to things like energy competitiveness, it talks to things like, why do you put an immensely high tax on the North Sea?
“That just disincentivises people from finding hydrocarbons in the North Sea, in energy.
“And what we need is competitive energy. So I mean, in America, in the energy world, in the oil and gas world, they just apply a corporation tax to the oil and gas companies, which is about 30%. And in the UK we’ve got this tax of 75% because we want to kill off the oil and gas companies.
“But if we don’t have competitive energy, we’re not going to have a healthy manufacturing industry. And that just makes no sense to me at all. No.”
‘We’re apolitical’
Asked about INEOS donating to Labour, Sir Jim replied: “We’re apolitical, INEOS.
“We just want a successful manufacturing sector in the UK and we’ve talked to the government about that. It’s pretty clear about our views.”
Sir Jim was keener to talk about the economy and politics than his role at struggling Manchester United, which he bought a 27.7% stake in from the American Glazer family in February – giving him an even higher business profile.
Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Pic: AP
Push for stadium of the North
He is continuing to push for public funds to regenerate Old Trafford and the surrounding areas despite no apparent political support being forthcoming. Sir Keir was hosted at the stadium for a Premier League match last weekend just as heavy rain exposed the fragility of the ageing venue.
“There’s a very good case, in my view, for having a stadium of the North, which would serve the northern part of the country in that arena of football,” Sir Jim said. “If you look at the number of Champions League the North West has won, it’s 10. London has won two.
“And yet everybody from the North has to get down to London to watch a big football match. And there should be one [a large stadium] in the North, in my view.
“But it’s also important for the southern side of Manchester, you know, to regenerate.
“It’s the sort of second capital of the country where the Industrial Revolution began.
“But if you have a regeneration project, you need a nucleus or a regeneration project and having that world-class stadium there, I think would provide the impetus to regenerate that region.”
Marks & Spencer’s website and app has not been working for several hours, with a message telling shoppers “you can’t shop with us right now”.
“We’re working hard to be back online as soon as possible,” it adds.
All the menus and images have disappeared apart from one showing a model in a green jacket.
Customers trying to use the app got the message: “Sorry you can’t shop through the app right now. We’re busy making some planned changes, but will be back soon.”
The site is understood to have been down for several hours.
Replying to one customer on X, the retailer said: “We’re experiencing some technical issues but we are working on it.”
M&S is the latest high street name to have technical issues – last month some Sainsbury’s shoppers had problems with their online orders.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The outage comes a few days before M&S is expected to reveal a big jump in annual profits.
It’s been a successful year for the brand, with strong sales across the business following a turnaround plan that has included store closures and cost cutting.
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