If at First…

…you fuck up, have another go:

Millions of rail and air passengers face massive disruption over Easter as Network Rail plans a repeat of the shutdowns that brought chaos to Britain at the new year, while BA confronts pilot strike action.

Engineering works at 35 locations will close parts of Britain’s busiest lines, including the west coast route between London and Glasgow that was hardest hit by work overruns in January. Other lines affected are: the east coast line between York and Doncaster; the great western route between Gloucester and Newport; and the transpennine line between Huddersfield and Leeds.

Oh, dear. While the railway traditionally closes down over Christmas, it usually remains running during Easter. Although, it is also usual to close parts of the network for engineering activities during holiday periods – as, they presume – there will be fewer travellers.

Given the inevitable disruption, longer journeys and over-crowded trains, I avoid travelling by rail during these periods like the proverbial black death.

Network Rail was fined a record £14m by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) last month, following a scathing report into the “totally unacceptable” new year fiasco that saw engineering works on the west coast line overrun by four days. “What happened at new year was unacceptable and Network Rail acknowledges that. Everyone has agreed there can be no repeat,” a spokesman for the regulator said.

Indeed. One hopes that things will be better planned this time around. However, nearly twenty years working in and around the rail industry gives me cause for pessimism…

A Network Rail spokesman said yesterday that completion of the work on time could not be guaranteed, but added that the management of engineering projects had been overhauled since January. “We can guarantee that we will be doing everything we can to ensure minimal disruption to passengers over Easter.”

See what I mean?