About 320 services were cancelled on ScotRail yesterday, because of the continuing shortage of drivers, aggravated by the effects of the pay dispute with ASLEF. Many drivers have been refusing to be available for voluntary Sunday shifts. Although ScotRail’s timetable has been reduced by a third in a bid to make services more predictable, extra trains were run on Friday and Saturday night. ScotRail accounted for the Sunday shortfalls by saying: ‘The complexities of pulling together such widespread changes to timetables means it's not possible to do it in such a short space of time. We apologise to customers and advise them to check their journeys on our website and app before travelling.’
Elizabeth Line clocks up a million passengers in five days
More than a million passengers have travelled on the central section of the Elizabeth Line since it was opened last Tuesday, Transport for London said. When the suburban lines to Shenfield, Heathrow and Reading are added the total is more than two million. The revenue will be a welcome injection for Transport for London’s stretched finances, although some of the passengers may have transferred from other parts of the Underground, particularly the Bakerloo and Central Lines. The line is only running six days a week for now, but there will be a special service on the Sunday of the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend. Bond Street is the only station which was not ready, and it will open later this year. The line’s director Howard Smith said: ‘Customers have been flocking to the railway in the hundreds of thousands each day since opening to marvel at our beautiful new stations but also to experience drastically shorter journey times. It is already having a transformative impact on local businesses and opening up access to new areas of London.’