Thousands of rail passengers face another day of travel chaos and disruptions stretching beyond the weekend due to engineering work that has not finished on time.
Network Rail, which is in charge of rail lines, has again failed to finish major work on the west coast mainline and on Liverpool Street station in London, continuing the severe disruption to train services.
Politicians and passenger groups criticised the company, which admitted it had made a "muddle" of engineering work. The train operator Virgin today again advised passengers not to travel and expressed concern that the chaos could be repeated throughout the year.
Passengers on the west coast mainline spoke of "nightmare journeys" yesterday, compounded by a fire that led to the evacuation of Birmingham International station.
The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) announced "an urgent investigation" into the engineering overruns and Network Rail faces a heavy fine. It was penalised £2.4m for failing to complete a Portsmouth signal improvement scheme over Christmas 2006.
The disruption coincides with a hike in fares. One passenger action group is planning a ticket strike.
Work on overhead electrical lines on the west coast mainline at Rugby in Warwickshire had been due to finish on Monday. But Network Rail did not have enough engineers to meet the deadline and thousands of passengers had delays of two hours or more as they were forced to take coaches or alternative rail routes between Birmingham and Northampton.
Alison Simpole, waiting at Birmingham International yesterday, said her journey from London Euston to Manchester had turned into a "nightmare".
"Instead of getting one train direct to Manchester, we travelled to Northampton and were told to take a replacement coach. I am disabled and can't use the coach, so in the end they put me in a taxi. It is the first time in eight years I have used the train and I won't be risking it again."
Margaret Haines, travelling from Milton Keynes to Crewe, said: "It has been an adventure, to say the least. We should have been in Crewe 40 minutes ago but instead we are stuck here in Birmingham, wondering when the next train will turn up. It is a complete mishmash."
Virgin Trains, which operates the West Coast run, said it was advising passengers not to travel today.
A spokesman said it had received assurances from National Rail "that it is likely that the west coast main line will reopen at Rugby on Friday".
Tony Collins, chief executive of Virgin Trains, said the company had written to the ORR asking if Network Rail had breached its licence. He said problems on the line could continue throughout 2008. "Is this just a one-off with Network Rail or is there an endemic problem? We need some transparency."
The ORR's chairman, Chris Bolt, said Network Rail's programme for completing the west coast works would be reviewed.
National Rail's operations and customer services director, Robin Gisbey, said today he was "deeply unhappy" about the further disruption to passengers. Gisbey said the overruns were "completely unacceptable" and the company was investigating.
Speaking on GMTV today, Gisbey said: "I am expecting rather than hoping that the west coast line will be fully operational at 5am tomorrow.
"I am deeply unhappy that we have mucked them (passengers) around. We will get this thing fixed and then we will understand in detail what went wrong."
Some services are terminating at Stratford and passengers are being told to change on to the Central line of the tube to complete their journeys.
The rail "fiasco" would be raised as "a matter of the utmost urgency" in the Commons on Monday when parliament returns from the Christmas break, Labour MP Louise Ellman said.
Ellman, a senior member of the Commons transport select committee, said she would be calling for an urgent inquiry. "I shall also be demanding an explanation and an apology. This is a completely unacceptable situation, a fiasco, which has caused massive inconvenience to thousands of people.
"When maintenance work takes place it should be properly planned, and there can be no excuse for the absence or non-availability of specialist workers.
"The thousands of people who have been inconvenienced and will continue to be inconvenienced, apparently until the end of this week, deserve a full explanation and an apology. I hope they will get it."
The Conservative shadow transport secretary, Therese Villiers, said passengers had been "on the end of a real double whammy" with the late-running engineering work and inflation-busting fare increases. She said the government had "let rail passengers down badly".
The Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, Norman Baker, said the overrunning work was "a fiasco" and "a disgraceful way to run a railway".
The disruption coincided with fare increases across the UK of twice the rate of inflation or more. Regulated fares, which include most season tickets, have gone up by an average of 4.8%, with many unregulated fares soaring above that.
Anthony Smith, the chief executive of the customer watchdog body Passenger Focus, said: "Passengers are paying more, but the rail industry must keep its side of the bargain by keeping its promises on engineering work."
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