Compensation for passengers caught up in weekend’s railway gridlock
- Credit: Archant
Passengers who suffered a nightmare weekend on the railways will receive compensation, a train firm has pledged.
People travelling between Ely, Littleport and London King’s Cross faced delays on the network two days running.
On Saturday King’s Cross station was closed all day, after track replacement work over ran from Boxing Day.
Services from East Cambridgeshire terminated at Finsbury Park, which had to be closed after becoming overwhelmed by passengers.
On Sunday afternoon, trains were delayed for up to 40 minutes by a signalling fault in the same area.
A spokesman for Thameslink Great Northern, which runs trains between King’s Lynn and London, including Ely and Littleport, said passengers could apply for compensation on its website if they were delayed by more than 30 minutes.
She said they should go online to www.greatnorthernrail.com but did not say how much they might be entitled to.
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Andy Tyler, secretary of the Fen Line Users Association (FLUA) said: “People have been put out of pocket and they need to be compensated as soon as possible,” he said.
“The idea that it’s best to do this infrastructure work close to or over the holidays needs to be looked at.
“People understand there will be disruption in cold weather but there needs to be better communications, the industry needs to look at the disruption that’s been caused over the holiday period.”
My Tyler said FLUA would be raising compensation and other issues with the train companies.
Robin Gisby, managing director of network operations, at Network Rail, said: “I would like to sincerely apologise for the upset and upheaval passengers suffered as our engineers struggled to complete an essential improvement project that had been months in planning.”
He added an investigation would be carried out into why the work over ran.
