Train cancellations top 360,000 for the year as passengers face major disruption
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Analysis of the latest Office of Rail and Road data found 208,000 services were fully axed in the year to November 9, with a further 161,000 part-cancelled. More than 360,000 train services across Britain were fully or part-cancelled in the past year as reliability is at a joint record low amid major staffing shortages.
![[Sir Keir Starmer with ousted former transport secretary Louise Haigh (Owen Humphreys/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/11/28/20/6a3e71319c41a1dfe6073552e830623aY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzMyOTExMjY5-2.75989643.jpg)
Analysis of the latest Office of Rail and Road data found 208,000 services were fully axed in the year to November 9. A further 161,000 were part-cancelled, meaning they did not serve at least one of their scheduled stops, the PA news agency’s analysis showed.
The rail industry produces a cancellations score - counting full cancellations as one and part-cancellations as half - which shows the equivalent of 4.0 per cent of the 7.3 million trains planned in that period were cancelled. That is the joint worst reliability performance in figures dating back to March 2015, when the annual cancellations score was just 1.9 per cent.
The growing disruption comes amid Labour’s bid to renationalise the railways, with the the Passenger Rail Services (Public Ownership) Bill receiving royal assent last month. It is Sir Keir Starmer’s first major public service reform since coming to power in July and was largely driven by now ousted transport secretary Louise Haigh.
The rail networks will come into public ownership under the new operating body Great British Rail, which will be set up via the bill. As private sector contracts come to an end, Great British Rail will take ownership and control of the lines. The railways are expected to be fully renationalised by the next election.
