Passengers are set to pay as much as £90 for rail replacement bus tickets this Christmas as more cancellations are set to hit the British rail network.
While customers are entitled to rail fare compensation for services running behind schedule or those which are cancelled, the cost of travelling on a rail replacement bus is the same as a functioning train service, as both require a valid rail ticket.
However, anyone travelling from Liverpool to London on Friday 27 December will face a 50-mile bus trip between Liverpool and Stoke due to reduced services and delays of over an hour.
Most of the available journeys on that day will involve a bus replacement service from Liverpool Lime Street to Stoke-on-Trent and then a train into Euston.
Worst rail firms cancel 800 trains per day ahead of Christmas travel nightmare
Read MoreDespite the additional hour to an already 3 hour16 minute journey, passengers will face a return ticket price of £90.30.
The journey between London and Norwich will require three changes next Friday, with a rail replacement bus through Essex. Passengers on the trip must pay £83.40 for a return.
Meanwhile, those travelling between Bedford and London will have to pay £40 for a return but will face most of the journey off the tracks and on a bus to Milton Keynes.
It comes as some of the UK’s largest rail companies face sustained criticism for poor performance this year, with Avanti, Northern and CrossCountry all criticised by the Government for “unacceptable” delays and cancellations.
Rail fares will rise by 4.6 per cent next year despite this poor performance, and rail bosses continue to see their bonuses increase.
Almost 800 rail services have been cancelled every day in 2024, The i Paper revealed yesterday.
Over the year, ten per cent of CrossCountry’s trains have been delayed each day, and more than 200 trains a day on Northern have been scrapped.
The travel chaos is likely to get worse over the Christmas period, with Britain’s 10 worst rail firms already announcing changes to service. London NorthWestern Railway has urged passengers to avoid travelling over the holidays altogether.
Meanwhile, Great Western Railway has asked passengers not to bring “massive suitcases” onboard due to reduced services.
Delays: How has your train operator performed?
Across Britain, operators cancelled 368,843 trains between November 2023 and November 2024 – around 5 per cent of 7.2 million services planned.
Here’s how the largest operators have performed:
1. CrossCountry – 23 trains cancelled per day, 10.1 per cent
2. Avanti West Coast – 22 trains per day, 9.4 cent
3. Northern – 204 trains per day, 9.1 per cent
4. Southwestern – 115 trains per day, 7.6 per cent
5. Govia Thameslink – 193 trains per day, 6.5 per cent
6. TfW – 61 trains per day, 6.4 per cent
7. LNER – 9 trains per day, 6.1 per cent
8. West Mids – 66 trains per day, 6.1 per cent
9. Great Western – 88 trains per day, 5.8 per cent
10. TPE – 15 trains per day, 5.2 per cent
11. Merseyrail – 27 trains per day, 4.9 per cent
12. East Mids – 22 trains per day, 4.8 per cent
13. London Overground – 66 trains per day, 4.5 per cent
14. Elizabeth line – 41 trains per day, 4.2 per cent
15. Southeastern – 50 trains per day, 3.3 per cent
16. Chiltern – 9 trains per day, 3 per cent
17. ScotRail – 47 trains per day, 2.5 per cent
18. c2c – 7 trains per day, 2.1 per cent
19. Greater Anglia – 25 trains per day, 2.1 per cent
During the election campaign, Labour announced plans to take a number of rail operators back into public ownership, and reforms to ensure commuters always paid they lowest fare available for their ticket.
This comes as rail executives have taken home millions in pay packages, many with extensive bonuses.
FirstGroup chief executive Graham Sutherland saw his pay increase to £1.4m for 2024 of which more than £796,000 was in bonuses, while Arriva Group chief executive Mike Brown took home £1.1m in total pay.
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