Ahead of publication of the report of the Rail Regulator (ORR) on the rail chaos over Christmas and New Year, new information has shown that Ministers were warned well ahead of time that passengers were likely to suffer.

The response to a freedom of information (FOI) request by Labour reveals that Ministers were made aware of the exact problems facing the network which left passengers stranded across the country and stood in their thousands in the freezing cold at Finsbury Park, but failed to act.

Information obtained by Labour from the Department for Transport (DfT) shows that, on 17 November 2014, the ‘Rail Taskforce’, OF which the Department is a member of, discussed; 

“Christmas and New Year Planned Engineering Works - Members noted the people resources, specifically Signal Testers, Overhead Linesmen and Supervisors, were the biggest risk to delivery as they are currently at supply chain capacity limits.”

The information goes on to show that following this meeting, these seasonal resilience issues were to be raised again in December at the Department’s ‘Performance Delivery Group’ - a body chaired by Ministers.

Ahead of the ORR report, expected today,  it is clear that the ‘people resources’ was a specific problem at Kings Cross, while at Paddington the contractor’s work was not carried out adequately, which would be a problem of ‘supervision’.

Despite these warnings and the warnings from the Labour Party on 20 November,  Ministers clearly failed to ensure that passengers did not endure the delays and cancellations over a period of heavy rail use with many travelling to see friends and family.

Michael Dugher MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, said:

“This is damning evidence that shows the level of ministerial complicity in the Christmas rail chaos. Thousands of passengers had their Christmases ruined by the problems we saw across the network. New information shows Ministers were warned about the big risks that the sheer scale of engineering works would entail.

“This shows how incompetent and out of touch Ministers are. Passengers and taxpayers deserve answers as to why they were let down so badly. It is not just Network Rail who need to learn lessons - it is Ministers too.”