Trains cancellation are a coincidence - claim
Too many trains are being cancelled on the line between Rugeley and Birmingham, passengers claimed today.
Commuters using the line say Thursday and Friday afternoon trains are regularly scrapped.
They want changes announced on the public address system, rather than just being posted online. A customer travelling from Rugeley to work in Birmingham and back daily, says four trains scheduled to leave the city at 4.07pm on a Thursday or Friday were cancelled in a month.
The 7.59am from Rugeley, was also withdrawn. The 55-year-old said. "I called London Midland and was told they have a problem with staff at the moment, in terms of how many they had available. They said this was because it takes 12 months to train a driver, but they have only got to give three months' notice to leave.
"When they are short of drivers they have a so-called 'planned cancellation', where they cancel a service the day before. This is then put on the internet.
"Why can't they announce it on the trains if they know the day before?"
A commuter said he was told quieter services were more likely to be hit.
A London Midland spokesman said: "It is coincidence that these 4.07pm trains have been cancelled – we don't like to cancel any trains, particularly at peak times. We have conferences twice every weekday and twice at weekends to assess resources and that's why we leave it until the day before to cancel services.
"It all depends on the drivers we have available."
