LONDON — According to the Associated Press, a senior rail official on Thursday defended plans to reduce the number of trains on Britain’s railways as a means of easing congestion on the busiest lines.
The Strategic Rail Authority, a government-appointed body which oversees development of the rail network, was to officially announce the service cuts later Thursday.
The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that more than 100 train services a day would be scrapped.
The British rail network is widely seen as inefficient and outmoded.
“We have … agreed to cut back on some of the services that are less heavily used … but keep this increased frequency on the services that are most heavily used,” said SRA chairman Richard Bowker.
“There will be some passengers that will be inconvenienced by what we’ve done today,” Bowker told the BBC. “It’s all down to improving the performance of the railway.”
He said the cuts would affect less than 1 percent of Britain’s 17,000 trains a day.
Anthony Smith, director of train-users’ watchdog the Rail Passengers Council, said that although some travelers would be disappointed, action was needed to improve services.
“Passengers will be very disappointed in some parts of the country, where there will be a loss of service, but I think we have to look a little bit more into the future and see now how we can rebuild this service,” Smith said.
Since privatization of the British railways in the 1990s, the number of rail services has grown by about 20 percent nationwide. This has contributed to congestion on lines, increasing the likelihood of delays faced by passengers. A single breakdown can bring a whole line to a standstill.