Hundreds of rail services face closure

Rail passengers are facing the prospect of losing hundreds of local services this year as part of a fundamental review of the national timetable.

Buses could replace trains on routes regarded as vital to communities if slow passenger trains are sacrificed for the benefit of express and freight services.

The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), which runs the network on behalf of the Government, wants to increase the frequency and reliability of the long-distance routes and is keen to maximise the number of passengers using the network and increase revenue.

The proposals, which may be revealed as early as mid-January, will prompt a furious response from towns and villages that rely on local services. Activists in "green'' pressure groups will also react angrily, arguing that a reduction in such services will simply force more people on to the roads, increasing pollution.

A senior source at the SRA said: "I am absolutely convinced that a number of regional services will be scrapped.''

The routes under the closest examination are those where there is a mix of slow and fast services. Many of the lines are thought to be in the West Midlands, according to industry sources. The services under threat invariably fail to make a profit but operators are obliged to provide them and they are aided by government subsidy.

The last time an axe was taken to local services was in the 1960s by Richard Beeching, chairman of the then Transport Commission. However, unlike Mr Beeching, the SRA has no intention of ripping up tracks, although the authority's deliberations could well result in fewer "stopping" services.

Anthony Smith, national director of the Rail Passengers Council, warned against "bus-titution'', where bus services replace rail. "While it might seem desirable to have fast trains whizzing around the country at the expense of local trains, some people who use these slower trains have no other means of completing their journey. In any case, people want to ride on trains not buses, which is an entirely different type of travel,'' he said.

News of the authority's review emerges at a time of renewed crisis for the industry, with Railtrack in administration, morale at rock bottom among the company's employees and passengers forced to put up with increasing delays. It is believed that the SRA could eventually take over responsibility for drawing up train times "to get a grip'' on the network, in effect nationalising the timetable.

At the moment, Railtrack, which has been in administration since early October, compiles the timetable and train operators are duty-bound to provide it under the direction of the authority. The problem is that long-distance routes, especially those operated by Virgin CrossCountry – whose services take in Aberdeen, Penzance and Brighton – are often held up by stopping trains. The company is keen to introduce regular services in place of the relatively haphazard timetable it operates at the moment to fit in with local services.

Richard Bowker, the new chairman of the SRA, was until recently a director at Virgin Trains, although the review was ordered long before he took the post at the authority.

A spokesman for the SRA confirmed it was reviewing the role of the thousands of "passenger service requirement'' routes to introduce more flexibility. The authority wants to increase the number of paths available to fast services at a time when there is huge pressure on capacity.

The network is providing about 20 per cent more train miles than it did five years ago and the SRA thought it was necessary to take another look at the timetable. However, the spokesman insisted the authority would attempt to "maintain the level'' of services that could not be run on a commercial basis. "It is not about kicking out stopping services. It is about running trains at different times to enhance capacity,'' he said.

Recently, Mr Bowker signalled a major cut in the number of train companies in an attempt to synchronise services and to do away with destructive rivalry.