The proposed redevelopment of Euston station for HS2 high-speed trains risks inflicting years of misery on London commuters, one of the UK’s largest train operators has warned.
David Brown, the chief executive of Go-Ahead, which operates the London Midland franchise out of Euston as a joint venture with French company Keolis, expressed concern about the £2.25bn upgrade to turn the station into the southern terminus of HS2. He said it could afflict commuters as much as the five-year upgrade of London Bridge.
The redevelopment of London Bridge has caused punctuality and passenger satisfaction to plummet for Go-Ahead’s Thameslink and Southeastern services using the station on the South Bank of the Thames.
Thameslink and Southeastern were the joint worst-performing franchises in a Which? survey published on Thursday, with an overall satisfaction score among passengers of just 46%.
Brown apologised to passengers for difficult journeys but said the factors behind most delays were out of his firm’s control, including the rebuilding of London Bridge.
Related: Revised HS2 plans for Euston extend build time by seven years
Brown said: “We are slightly paranoid – we don’t want Euston to turn into London Bridge. We want to know that we can carry on providing a good service to existing customers. We’re trying to represent the passenger.”
He said Go-Ahead were in discussions about how to manage the disruption, should HS2 go ahead as planned. Asked if he was confident that a repeat of London Bridge could be averted, Brown said: “I’m hoping everyone is very focused on making sure that doesn’t happen.”
Go-Ahead’s London Midland trains bring passengers in from the home counties and west midlands to Euston station, which will be significantly redeveloped for the £55bn HS2 network. In its financial statements, Go-Ahead said HS2 could “significantly impact on our ability to run our services reliably, meet contractual obligations, and performance targets, or damage customer reputation”.
A Commons select committee has been hearing petitions against the route of HS2, including alternative proposals for its London terminus, with full parliamentary assent for the high-speed rail plan expected to be granted by December.
Meanwhile, Brown urged train passengers to “bear with us” as the current prolonged problems with its commuter services would eventually give way to a much-improved service, with faster and more frequent connections and an entire fleet of new trains by 2018. He said six out of 10 delays were down to Network Rail, which is responsible for railway tracks across the UK and London’s major terminals, including Euston and London Bridge.
Referring to the Which? survey, which confirmed the findings of a national rail passenger survey in January showing high levels of dissatisfaction with Go-Ahead’s commuter services, Brown said: “Of course southeast franchises have come out poorly. There is a massive increase in passenger numbers on a railway infrastructure that hasn’t changed – but at the same time we are changing that, that’s what the £6.5bn Thameslink work is about.
“But in the meantime we’ve got disruption. You’ve got less capacity, less resilience, and reliability problems. There’s no slack.”
Brown said the work had exacerbated a shortage of drivers, as staff needed retraining to drive the new trains on Thameslink routes, but said Go-Ahead now had created the largest driver training academy in Europe to tackle the shortfall.
“Bringing in new trains is a positive – but in the short term it causes an issue of training people. Everything is about bearing with us. We are building a better railway, we will get there.”
The first of 1,140 carriages built by Siemens for Thameslink will be delivered in spring 2016 and Brown admitted the new trains could make some suburban customers unhappier.
The carriages have been designed with wider doors and more standing space, to allow passengers to board quickly at crowded central London stations. “Some passengers will like them and some won’t. It’s all a trade-off. You are acting like a metro and that alighting and exiting makes the biggest difference to your reliabililty and punctuality in the heart of London.”
Go-Ahead announced half-year pre-tax profits for 2015-16 of £52.1m, up 17%, on revenues up 7%. The only part of the transport group’s operation to go into reverse was London buses, where operating profit fell 4.4% due to missed bonus payments for hitting service targets, which Brown blamed on roadworks and congestion.
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