Britain’s railways have got a lot of flack in recent years, and rightly so. Delays and cancellations are commonplace, while the industrial dispute that has raged for over two years is still yet to be fully resolved. Perhaps the most striking representation of the failure of UK train operators to provide any semblance of adequate service in recent years is in the performance of both Avanti West Coast and Transpennine Express.
The latter was nationalised after reporting the highest cancellation rate in the country, while Avanti has become a punching bag for politicians amid ongoing issues on the West Coast Main Line. The new transport secretary, Louise Haigh, is hauling bosses in this week for a dressing-down. The point is, its been a rough ride since the pandemic decimated passenger numbers and left the railway system’s finances in tatters.
You’ll have a hard time finding any positive news coverage since 2020. But is the UK really that bad? Take a look around Europe and you’ll find many of the continent’s wealthiest countries also can’t run a railway system properly. Once lauded for its excellent service, Germany’s state railway Deutsche Bahn has been exposed at this summer’s European football championships.
Years of underinvestment has sent cancellation rates soaring, with typically admiring English fans now wondering if they don’t have it so bad on home turf after all. The issues have been such that journalists seeking to cover new investment into German ra.