TRAIN PAIN CONTINUES

2.52.00pm GMT Tue 10th Nov 2009

57 Trains notified as cancelled in one day - is this a record?

While First Capital Connect and ASLEF continue to insist there is no formal dispute between them, today's FCC website Live Update on train services timed at 8.08 am listed 57 train services as cancelled today.

"It seems to be a fantasy world," said Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Albans. "Yesterday FCC simply closed their Great Northern route and ran no trains through Welwyn and Hatfield, just as recently the London Midland franchisee did the same for one day on their route through Kings Langley which serves the western edge of the St Albans constituency.

"I am being inundated this morning with texts from fed-up commuters stuffed onto packed slow trains - I cannot begin to imagine what conditions are like south of St Albans.

"It is a matter of fact that the United Kingdom has the highest rail fares in the world. St Albans has the dismal record of already being more expensive for a London commute than any similar length commuter journey in the UK, and then commuters had to bear another inflation-busting fare increase this year. So what is happening is quite intolerable. It is simply not fair to treat commuters in this cavalier way when they have paid so much over over the odds for a proper rail service.

"FCC and their drivers need to settle their differences quickly and provide the service their customers deserve. And there must be a clear promise of compensation for people who have paid for an advertised service which simply has not been delivered."