Rail Special 1

TRAINS OFF THE RAILS - AGAIN

27-08-2007

Birmingham city centre was gridlocked over the Bank Holiday weekend as the demolition of a bridge above the Queensway tunnel caused several road closures. So a great chance to let the train take the strain. Chance would be a fine thing.

As The Stirrer has reported previously, working on Sundays is an optional extra for rail workers - and even though Central Trains is due to be replaced by Go Via in November, there's still no guarantee a deal will be done (see "Sunday Train Go Slow" )

This was compounded by the usual Bank Holiday engineering work which has ruled out hundreds of services across Birmingham and the Black Country on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday.

The Cross City Line, Birmingham to Rugeley via Walsall, and Birmingham to Coventry were all ruled out for the duration, while the Walsall to Wolverhampton route was also hit.

It mean that shoppers, and football fans travelling to matches at Villa Park and Walsall's Banks's Stadium had to use alternative transport

Given that Birmingham city centre was bound to suffer traffic problems because of the bridge works, would it have been too much to expect a rail service on this weekend of all weekends?

Evidently so.