Rail delays reach peak

Rail travellers face weeks of chaos

Rail travellers are facing their worst day of disruption as emergency track repairs are stepped up at more than 160 sites around Britain.

The huge programme of repairs - which Railtrack is carrying out following the Hatfield train disaster - reaches its peak on Sunday.

Delays are expected to be even longer than Saturday, and the track operator has warned the rail network may not be back to a normal timetable until the week before Christmas.

Rail Repairs

Teams are replacing 24 miles of track

Work being done at 160 sites

300 sites could have speed limits

1,850 hairline cracks found

Thousands of workers are checking lines across the network for hairline cracks similar to those which caused last week's fatal derailment at Hatfield.

A Railtrack spokesman said that by the middle of next week the company hoped to have completed checks and identified areas where heavy engineering work was needed.

But he added: "People won't see significant changes to their journey times for at least another two weeks.

"The entire network won't return to a normal time table for another six to eight weeks."

Broken rails

Worst affected on Saturday were the thousands of football fans who usually rely on rail services to take them to matches.

One train operating company, Midland Mainline which runs services between London and Sheffield, has advised passengers not to attempt any rail journeys on Sunday.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged the head of Railtrack to complete the work as quickly as possible.

Speed restrictions are causing delays

Mr Blair, who met Railtrack chief executive Gerald Corbett at Downing Street on Friday, has stressed the importance of striking a "sensible balance" between vital safety work and the need to keep the network going.

Mr Blair said: "We want to minimise the disruption to passengers, but we want to make sure we take all the necessary steps in relation to safety.

"The only long-term solution to these problems is to get the extra investment into our infrastructure that we desperately need."

Transport Minister Lord Macdonald said: "The sooner these essential safety checks are completed the safer people will feel, and the sooner timetables will get back to normal.

"It's very frustrating for the passengers - but the staff have been working very hard since Hatfield to get this sorted."

Repairs timetable 'optimistic'

Virgin Trains revealed on Sunday it had first alerted Railtrack about faulty sections of the UK's rail network and broken rails two years ago.

The repair programme has been prompted by concerns over 1,850 hairline cracks found on rails.

Passengers get the bad news at Euston Station

Among the areas worst affected are the East Coast Mainline, Clapham Junction, South Wales and Bristol.

Anthony Smith, of the Rail Passengers Council, said Railtrack's assurances about when the work would be completed were "optimistic".

He also criticised Railtrack for only providing "patchy" information about where the delays would be and how long they would last.

But a spokesman said the situation would be "stabilised" by Monday, when 10-15% of the speed restrictions would be lifted.

Safety probe

Railtrack has also begun an investigation into claims that one of its sub-contractors decided a year ago that work to repair some track defects could be put off.

The allegations contained in a leaked memo published in the News of the World newspaper are bound to embarrass Railtrack.

But managers insist the stretches of track referred to in the document have now been replaced.