Worst major train stations for cancellations named

Manchester Victoria has been the worst of Britain's busiest railway stations for cancellations truthful acold this year.

About 1 successful 10 of 10,506 scheduled stops were cancelled betwixt January and November 2024, according to National Rail figures collected by bid information website On Time Trains.

This contributed to the north-west of England being the portion with the highest complaint of cancelled railway stops crossed Britain astatine 6.5%, with 611,047 cancellations.

The authorities said it was committed to delivering the biggest overhaul of the railways successful a generation, bringing services backmost into nationalist ownership to reinvest successful them.

Meher, 22, a caller postgraduate from Bolton, has experienced regular cancellations astatine Manchester Victoria.

She said arsenic a pupil successful Preston, she had astir apt missed hundreds of hours of assemblage due to the fact that of bid cancellations.

"I deliberation astir of the time, we were much stressed astir our trains than our work," she said. "It was mostly astatine evening clip erstwhile we were heading back, truthful we were coming location aboriginal than expected and missing rather a spot of mosque."

Meher said cancelled trains had meant travelling location successful the acheronian much often, adding: "If it's darker, past it's overmuch worse and you're unsocial arsenic well. It does interaction your safety."

Daniel, 19, who besides commutes to assemblage via Manchester Victoria, said helium usually aimed to get an hr aboriginal successful anticipation of cancellations disrupting his journey.

Although surviving astatine location meant helium saved money, helium said relying connected trains had proven stressful.

"A batch of my friends unrecorded connected field and they person it overmuch easier - but I wouldn't similar to wage for accommodation," helium said.

More than 3 cardinal bid stops successful Britain person been cancelled from January to November this twelvemonth - 3.8% of the astir 83 cardinal scheduled.

This breaks down into a 3.9% cancellation complaint successful England and Wales and 2.9% successful Scotland.

BBC investigation calculated the percent of scheduled stops with a cancelled accomplishment and/or departure by utilizing National Rail information collected by On Time Trains.

This differs from the cancellation investigation by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), which factors successful afloat and partial cancellations, planned timetable changes, strikes and reduced staffing.

Amber, 21, travels from Liverpool Lime Street regularly, but said her bid was cancelled astir 25% of the time.

"It's annoying that the minimum work isn't being adhered to," she said. "It would beryllium unheard of down south.

"Cities up northbound person to conscionable woody with it, due to the fact that there's nary different option."

Liverpool Lime Street had the 11th highest cancellation complaint of immoderate presumption successful Britain, with 12,062 trains (5.9%) cancelled betwixt 1 January and 30 November this year.

Of the 100 railway stations successful Britain ranked busiest by the ORR, 3 of the 5 worst for cancellations were successful Manchester: Manchester Victoria (9.5%), Manchester Oxford Road (8.1%) and Manchester Piccadilly (6.7%).

In England, the regions with the worst wide cancellation rates were the North West connected 6.5%, followed by the South West connected 4.8% and the North East connected 4.6%.

Three of the 5 areas crossed Britain with cancellation rates beneath the wide nationalist complaint were successful the southbound oregon eastbound of England.

Michael Solomon Williams, from transport foundation Campaign for Better Transport, said passengers successful the North had "suffered for acold excessively long", with "far more" concern made successful the South.

"There's been a lawsuit of economical and societal inequality which has been straight related to transport inequality implicit a fig of years," helium said.

"We request to put much successful the northbound than successful the southbound to rebalance things."

Network Rail manages 20 of Britain's busiest and biggest stations. It leases the remainder to bid operating companies who negociate them but are not liable for the punctuality of different operators utilizing the stations.

Rail Delivery Group, which represents National Rail and bid operators, said cancellations could beryllium caused by weather, concern action, trespass and track, bid oregon signalling faults.

It said this was not acceptable and everyone was moving hard to guarantee bid services were reliable and punctual.

Northern, which manages Manchester Victoria and Manchester Oxford Road stations, said it had been moving hard to code bid unit availability issues, to amended reliability.

It said a remainder time moving statement had been reached with drivers and it would proceed to enactment with the RMT national to find a "new mode forward" aft conductors recently rejected an connection relating to Sunday working.

The RMT said it was seeking further talks with the company.

Network Rail, which manages Manchester Piccadilly presumption but does not tally bid services, said its occupation was to "help support passengers safely connected the move".

It said it understood however frustrating disruption was for passengers and it supported bid operators astatine the presumption to present a reliable service.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "Passengers are being fto down by mediocre services, which is wherefore we are committed to delivering the biggest overhaul of the railways successful a generation."

They said bringing services backmost into nationalist ownership would enactment passengers astatine the bosom and let the authorities to reinvest successful railways, portion holding operators to account.