First Capital Connect’s hopes of running a “significantly improved” service today were dealt a blow by a raft of rush hour delays.
Trains are still running more than two hours late tonight after a double whammy of signalling problems in the St Pancras area and a broken down train near London Blackfriars.
The train operator had hoped to revert to a near-normal timetable after drivers from the Aslef union voted to accept a pay deal last week.
It hoped this would also bring to an end weeks of wildcat industrial action, during which drivers refused to work the overtime the timetable depended on, especially on Sundays.
It is not clear today whether that was the case – but what is certain is that the service is not operating as planned.
It took furious Brighton commuter Mark King almost two hours just to get from St Pancras to Haywards Heath, where to his dismay his train terminated at about 8pm.
He tweeted: “I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever see my baby in the evenings once it’s born, if FirstCC can’t get me home until 9pm!”
