Mayor Oliver Coppard blasts EMR over cuts to Intercity services set to cause 'summer of chaos'
“Public control of the railways can’t come soon enough.”
The mayor of South Yorkshire has blasted East Midlands Rail over “unacceptable” reductions to the Intercity service to London set to spark a “summer of chaos.”
A furious Oliver Coppard said announcing on Friday of reductions from Monday, July 20, was “treating passengers with contempt.”
Most passengers were now likely to be crammed onto overly full trains that would get them to London late, he added.
EMR said it was axing up to half of services and reducing the number of carriages on others due to reliability issues with Hitachi trains.
From Monday, the 6.30am from Sheffield to St Pancras will have fewer carriages.
And services to the capital at 12pm, 2.35pm and 5pm have been cancelled, along with the 8.28pm to Derby.
Five trains from St Pancras to Sheffield have been cancelled and the busy 19.02 will have fewer carriages.
The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority oversees transport in the region.
Mr Coppard said: “This afternoon at around 1445 we were told by East Midlands Railway that they would be reducing the intercity services between Sheffield and London from Monday morning.
“While we still have very little detail, from what they’ve sent through it looks like we could be losing up to half our services, and they will also be reducing the number of carriages. My officers met with the EMR stakeholder team last week and nothing was mentioned.
“Apparently this is a ‘temporary measure’ but we have no idea for how long.”
EMR lost two trains in the the recent crash in Bedford, he added, but the problems were also likely to be linked to problems on new trains, which were three years late.
He added: “No matter the cause, there is never a good reason to treat passengers with so much contempt as to communicate that information so late and so poorly.
“Most people turning up on Monday will not know about those changes and are now likely to be crammed onto overly full trains that will get them to London late.
We’re now facing a summer of chaos on the railways. To say this isn’t acceptable couldn’t be more of an understatement and I’ll be taking it up with the MD of the company as a matter of urgency.”
He added: “Public control of the railways can’t come soon enough.”
EMR said the timetable changes were due to the performance of Hitachi Rail's new Class 810 fleet and their maintenance of EMR’s existing Class 222 fleet.
It said a three-year delay in the first Class 810 trains coming into service and reliability and maintenance issues across both fleets, “has significantly impacted EMR's ability to run a reliable Intercity service.”
Will Rogers, managing director at East Midlands Railway, said: "The performance of the Class 810 fleet has fallen below the levels we and our customers expect, and it is necessary to introduce a temporary reduced timetable while we work with the manufacturer, Hitachi Rail, to improve consistency in service.
"We recognise that this will be disappointing for customers, and we understand the frustration caused when our Intercity services do not consistently meet the standards they rightly expect, which in turn puts our frontline staff in an unenviable position of trying to deliver excellent customer service amidst ongoing reliability challenges.
“We are sorry for the significant disruption and inconvenience these issues have caused our customers, and we are committed to restoring the reliable service they rightly expect."
Customers who have booked a ticket and now find their EMR service isn't running will be able to travel up to either two trains prior, or two trains after, the affected service, he added.
Customers who decide not to travel can request a full refund.