London To Glasgow Service Faces Delays On First Day Of New Timetable

The new train service between Glasgow and London has been disrupted on the first working day of the new timetable.

The £9m newly upgraded mainline between the two cities aims to reduce journey times however this morning two of the four tracks through a section in north London have been closed after a circuit failure.

Under the new timetable virgin trains will take four and a half hours northbound the current northbound journey takes five hours and 20 minutes. The new southbound journey will take just over four hours.

There will 13 journeys daily with four more direct services between the two cities.

Tony Collins, Virgin Rail Group's CEO, said: "More seats and dramatically reduced journey times are huge wins for passengers but quite rightly we will all be judged on how well this railway will perform.

"The successful running of Europe's busiest main line railway is going to be a huge challenge for the train operators and Network Rail and, during the first few months as the timetable beds in, passengers' expectations may not always be fulfilled.

The new service will help Virgin trains compete more effectively with air travel.

Mr Collins said: "I believe however that within six months we shall have a railway of which the nation can truly be proud."

However people living in Lockerbie have raised concern that their train service may not be as good.

Ron McAuley, director of Network Rail in Scotland, said the project is all about bringing the two major conurbations of London and Glasgow closer together,

"In a month we will see the introduction of an express service, which only stops at Preston, and that will bring the journey time down to four hours and 10 minutes.

"If you look at journey times from city centre to city centre, this will make it more attractive for people to take the train than the plane,” he said.

(GK/JM)