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Thursday 22 Apr 2010

MORE ROUND THE CLOCK SERVICES TO RUN

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National

Rail lines and stations serving London's airports will continue to offer round-the clock services tonight and tomorrow as the rail industry continues to play its part to get people home as quickly as possible following almost a week of air travel problems.

Robin Gisby, Network Rail's director of operations and customer services said: "Britain has faced an unprecedented transport challenge. Network Rail and the train operators have stepped up to do whatever we can to help.  We will continue to open up our lines and run extra trains in the days ahead to help people get home as quickly as possible."

Last night saw rail lines, stations and services to London's airports run throughout the night for the first time in living memory.  There  was a limited number of flights last night but a large increase in volume is expected over the coming 48 hours as more transport is laid on to aid repatriation.

Extra services will also be run into the early hours to serve the main ferry ports being used by returning Brits, such as Dover.

Paddington, Liverpool Street, Victoria and Gatwick - some of Network Rail's, and the UK's, biggest and busiest stations - will remain open round-the-clock for at least the next 48 hours.  Scores of extra staff have been drafted in at these stations to provide help to passengers, with retailers helping by keeping refreshment outlets open.

Operators, such as Virgin and East Coast are continuing to run extra services on their Anglo-Scottish routes to boost capacity. Eurostar also continue to run extra services.

Weekend engineering work on the Anglo-Scottish routes - the east and west coast main lines - has also been cancelled to enable more direct services to run.

Over the past week the rail industry has laid on extra services amounting to almost 100,000 extra seats.