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Rail passengers travelling to Scotland arrived nearly five hours late because of dew on the line. A ScotRail spokesman blamed "poor rail adhesion because of climatic conditions" for the hold-up on the night sleeper service from London to Edinburgh via Glasgow. The problem arose when the train, which had already suffered one delay because its driver was late arriving at Euston station, tried to climb the slope at Shap, Cumbria, one of the steepest inclines on Britain's rail network. A substitute locomotive and driver had to be fetched to pull the sleeper service up the hill and on to Edinburgh, where it arrived at 12.14pm. It meant the train, which is scheduled to pull in at 7.17am, took 12-and-a-half hours to travel the route. A ScotRail spokesman said: "You can get certain conditions in climate on early dewy mornings where the wheels aren't gripping properly on the line. These sleeper trains are the longest trains on the network and they are pulling a great weight. The locomotive wasn't getting traction, so a second locomotive had to be got and this locomotive had to be hired from another company, hence the complication and the delay, for which we are very sorry."

Hundreds of rail passengers were left stranded in Birmingham for nearly an hour - because their driver did not know the way. Commuters hoping to make their way north on the 5.35pm Virgin service to Edinburgh were told their train would be delayed because the driver "did not know the way to Derby". Angry travellers described the situation as a fiasco after the train was forced to turn back to New Street one mile after setting off. Chris Bates, a PR consultant from Selly Park, Birmingham, said, "The train set off on time and about one mile out of the station just stopped dead. A conductor said the driver did not know the way to Derby so we would have to turn back."

Connex says 55 new trains can't enter service because there's not enough electricity to power them. The rail company ordered the trains in 1998 at a cost of around £170 million. The engines need more electrical power than is available. The company is trying to sort out the problem. A Connex spokesman told the Sunday Express: "I don't think we knew how much power would be needed. I think, with hindsight, that everybody should have put their heads together much earlier. "We have come to the situation where we are all trying to introduce new trains." He added: "I'm not entirely sure about why we didn't realise the power problems. I think we were talking to Railtrack at the same time as the trains were being built. Now we are at a situation where we need to get it right. "We're all planning to sit down and put our heads together to get it sorted. I don't know how long it will take. It's an indefinite period - that's the short answer." One plan is to run them at a slower speed than the trains they replace.

 

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