Yesterday Your Herefordshire reported on trains being cancelled from Birmingham New Street to Hereford, this was particularly frustrating for local people who either had to use rail replacement services or arrange their own transport home. A number of Your Herefordshire followers voiced their concerns to us on our Facebook page.
Rachel Smith commented “This happened to me last week when I was in Birmingham wanting to get home to Hereford. Was a nightmare! So short staffed last week and now this week”
Laura Morris told us “I was on the first cancelled train that stopped in Ledbury for over an hour. We’ve were initially told it was an operational issue and then after 4 men in hard hats walking up and down the platform we saw it was down due to slippery tracks. Subsequent trains were cancelled because of this. They need to make their minds up. We had enough crew when we set off!!!! Once again I was unable to get to the QE. 3rd time this week”
Finally Mareena Taylor-Johns told us “My poor daughter was left stranded at Worcester station late the other night. No replacement buses or information from anyone. And they wonder why no-one uses the trains”
A West Midlands Railway spokesperson told Your Herefordshire: “We are sorry to passengers in Herefordshire whose journeys were subject to delays and cancellations on Thursday. This was due to a temporary shortage of available train crew and rail replacement transport was in operation.
“Any passenger whose journey was delayed by 15 minutes or more as a result of the disruption can claim compensation against the cost of their ticket via our Delay Repay scheme.”
For your background, you can find out more about what we’re doing to improve train crew availability via this webpage – Performance Update – and rail replacement was in operation yesterday, offering passengers to Herefordshire a route home.
