In opposition the Tories repeatedly complained about a lack of rail services on Boxing Day, saying it showed that Labour did not have the “interests of the travelling public at heart”. And earlier this month the Transport Secretary warned about the ‘dire consequences’ of a repeat of last year’s Boxing Day rail chaos.
But this year – yet again - there are almost no Boxing Day rail services across the country – even though the Tories have been in office for five and a half years and have the power to do something about it.
Jon Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister without Portfolio, said:
“In opposition the Tories attacked the Boxing Day rail shutdown. They’ve now had more than five years to do something about it but haven’t. Their lack of action, even despite the chaos of last year, gives the impression they don’t really care about it at all. The Tory hypocrisy on this issue is astounding.”
Ends
Notes to editors
1. In 2008, when he was Shadow Transport Minister, Stephen Hammond MP called for an increase in Boxing Day rail services.
“Boxing Day is a traditional sporting fixture across the country for many sports, not just football. Huge numbers of fans will be heading to games, enjoying the day out with their families. From just the Premier League and Championship (the top two football divisions) there are an expected 45,000 away fans travelling to games. While engineering work should be carried out in quiet periods for travel, Boxing Day can hardly be seen as a quiet period. Families and football fans will be given no choice but to get into their cars, pump more CO2 into the atmosphere and put up with potentially eye-watering levels of congestion because the railways remain shut.“
Stephen Hammond, The Independent, 26 December 2008,http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-call-for-boxing-day-rail-services-1211418.html
2. He repeated this attack in 2009, saying that “by allowing the railway to close so completely on Boxing Day Labour are condemning sports fans, and families trying to celebrate the Christmas period together, to misery on our clogged up motorways”.
"Thousands of families travel the length and breadth of the country to visit relatives and loved ones on Boxing Day. But yet again this year the railways will grind to a halt, forcing people onto gridlocked motorways. When you add to this the thousands of home and away football fans heading for games then the headache on our roads gets much worse. ‘While engineering work should be carried out in quiet periods for travel, Boxing Day can hardly be seen as a quiet period. Labour just do not get how important the railway is to people at Christmas-time. By allowing the railway to close so completely on Boxing Day Labour are condemning sports fans, and families trying to celebrate the Christmas period together, to misery on our clogged up motorways. 'If Labour had the interest of the travelling public at heart they would not cut people off from the railway at the very time when they need a fast, reliable and pleasant way to travel long distance across the UK.”
Stephen Hammond, The Telegraph, 26 December 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/6859224/Travel-misery-to-continue-as-train-services-halted.html
3. Earlier this month Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said that if there was a repeat of last year’s rail chaos “the consequences will be dire”.
“Last year the disruption on the railways, and chaos at London Bridge station, was totally unacceptable. I’ve made it clear to rail bosses that if there’s a repeat of last year’s chaos the consequences will be dire. Thousands of transport workers will spend their Christmases working to improve our railways: I don’t want to see their hard work go to waste.”
Patrick McLoughlin, 5 December 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/12035514/Network-Rail-warned-over-Christmas-engineering-works.html
4. Yet this year, on the sixth Boxing Day since the Conservatives took office most train operators will be running no service at all and the rest will be running a reduced service.
Company
Boxing Day services
Abellio Greater Anglia / Stansted Express: Half-hour service, London Liverpool Street – Stansted Airport operating all day
Arriva Trains Wales: No service
c2c: No service
Caledonian Sleeper: No service
Chiltern Railways: Special service between London Marylebone-Oxford Parkway
CrossCountry: No service
East Midlands Trains: No service
Eurostar: Amended service may run on and around public holidays
First TransPennine Express: No service
Gatwick Express: Trains are running between London Victoria and East Grinstead, a connecting bus service will run between East Grinstead and Gatwick
Grand Central: No service
Great Northern: No service
Great Western Railway: No service
Heathrow Connect: Heathrow Central to Terminal 4 / 5 service only
Heathrow Express: Heathrow Central to Terminal 4 / 5 service only
Hull Trains: No service
London Midland: No service
London Overground: No service
Merseyrail: Limited service between 09:00 and 18:30 calling at selected stations
Northern Rail: No service
ScotRail: Strathclyde services only
South West Trains: No service
Southeastern: High Speed service between London St Pancras and Ashford every 30 minutes between 08:00 and 20:00. The rest of the Southeastern network will be closed.
Southern: Limited service running
Thameslink: Limited service running
Virgin Trains East Coast: No service
Virgin Trains West Coast: No service
Source: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/108569.aspx