This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Office of Rail Regulation will launch an investigation into serious travel disruption caused by overrunning engineering works in London, which led to services to and from two major stations being cancelled and chaotic overcrowding at a local station to which some trains were re-routed.

King’s Cross station remained closed on Saturday after Network Rail failed to complete maintenance work on the east coast mainline. Travellers were told to use Finsbury Park instead but the north London station was closed temporarily on Saturday morning due to overcrowding. Hundreds of passengers endured waits of more than two hours to enter or leave the platforms after the station reopened.

“Network Rail, working with the rest of the industry, must learn lessons and prevent problems like this happening again,” the railway watchdog said. “We will also be reviewing the standard of passenger information with a focus on whether passengers have been adequately informed to make alternative arrangements to their journeys, or to claim compensation.”

Robin Gisby, the managing director of Network Rail, apologised. “We have let a lot of people down,” he said and blamed the delays to the engineering works at King’s Cross on equipment breakdown.

He added: “I’m deeply sorry for the delays, upset and upheaval caused today to passengers impacted by our overrunning improvement work outside King’s Cross.

“We’ve had an army of 11,000 engineers out over Christmas Day and Boxing Day at 2,000 locations nationwide. Over 90% has been completed and handed back to-time but I realise this is no consolation for the thousands affected today.”

He said Network Rail will pay compensation to train operators but would not be drawn on whether affected customers will be in line for payouts.

The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, described the disruption as “totally unacceptable”. “Passengers must be able to trust that vital engineering works on the rail network will be completed on time,” he said. “Passengers deserve no less.”

“I will be asking Network Rail to set out what went wrong and how it can learn lessons, but its priority must be to get services running into King’s Cross as well as Paddington,” he added.

Ch Supt Paul Brogden, of the British transport police, said the queue to enter Finsbury Park after it had reopened was about an hour long, with a similar wait for passengers on trains to arrive and disembark.

One traveller said they had been waiting outside Finsbury Park for two hours. “Into hour 5 and we’ve been stuck outside Finsbury for 2 and it’s bloody freezing in carriage E!,” Kidneychops tweeted.

Kidneychops (@kidney_chops) Into hour 5 and we've been stuck outside Finsbury for 2 and it's bloody freezing in carriage E! @eastcoastuk @networkrail #KingsCrossTrains

Brogden added that “temporary control measures” had been implemented – meaning people were prevented for a time from entering the station to ease congestion.

Travellers at Finsbury Park vented their frustration on Twitter. Jim Ewing tweeted a picture of the station concourse jammed with travellers, adding that he had been stuck in a corridor for more than an hour. “It’s crazy here, disorganised chaos,” he wrote.

Jim Ewing (@jimewing) Avoid Finsbury Park #railway & #underground it's crazy here, stuck in a corridor over 1hr, disorganised chaos #London pic.twitter.com/wLyL1qnSnv

Willard Foxton tweeted a photo of the chaos outside, adding: “Queue to get into Finsbury Park. Whatever genius had the plan ‘send all of Kings X here’ should be fired.”

Willard Foxton (@WillardFoxton) Queue to get into Finsbury park. Whatever genius had the plan "send all of Kings X here" should be fired. pic.twitter.com/bc9pOSQoUn

George Hallam, a semi-retired economics lecturer from Lewisham, was among the crowds waiting to get on a train at Finsbury Park.

He said: “There are a lot of vulnerable people here. My mother-in-law is 94, we managed to get her into a taxi some time ago. But the train companies ought to be arranging coaches, not taxis.”

Travellers trying to get to and from the west of England also suffered serious disruption to their journeys after all lines out of Paddington were blocked by a signalling fault, Network Rail said.

Once on the trains, the misery continued, with passengers tweeting pictures of packed carriages with people standing crowded together in aisles.

Emma Ferguson (@EmmaFergie90) @Morningsidemole @networkrail I hope so. But it's a long journey to be standing up for #chaos pic.twitter.com/WYNbZWBc3m

Lindesay Irvine, 45, a Guardian journalist, said he has been stuck on a “dangerously overcrowded” train after two trainloads of people, one from Bristol and one from Cornwall, were merged into one.

Irvine, who was travelling to Paddington after spending Christmas with family in Bristol, said: “It is dangerously overcrowded. In health and safety terms this must be well against the law. There is not an inch of room. At the last station people tried to get on but couldn’t. One person has been taken ill on the train.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Railway workers on the tracks outside King’s Cross, London, as trains in and out of the station have been cancelled. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

First Great Western said overrunning engineering works, with no trains running between London Paddington and Reading, were further exacerbating the problem. The train operator advised passengers to use alternative routes with South West Trains and Chiltern Trains and has offered refunds to travellers who decide not to travel on Saturday.

West coast mainline services are also not running between London Euston and Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire until 29 December, due to engineering works.

Gisby told the BBC on Saturday that Network Rail hoped to have King’s Cross up and running by Sunday morning. He also warned that engineering works would continue across the rail network throughout the rest of the holiday period.

“This is part of a major programme,” he said. “We bitterly regret what happened this morning at both Paddington and King’s Cross. There’s a lot of other work throughout the country that we are monitoring very carefully and we’ll do all we can not to repeat the dreadful disruption that we’ve caused today.”

The shadow transport secretary, Michael Dugher, said passengers had endured “misery on top of misery” .

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Travellers queuing outside Finsbury Park after being redirected there from King’s Cross. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

“Ministers are responsible for piling misery on top of misery for those who have to rely on our railway,” he said. “It was the government that allowed almost the entire rail network to be shut down during Boxing Day, one of the busiest bank holidays of the year.

“Now we see this further unacceptable disruption, just as people try to get home after Christmas and at a time when many of our roads have experienced severe problems because of the bad weather.”

King’s Cross was closed on Friday evening for 24 hours as work to install new overhead power cables on tracks running north of the station took longer than expected.

Before Christmas, Network Rail warned passengers that a £200m engineering project scheduled between Christmas and New Year would affect stations across the network, with an estimated 11,000 engineers working on Christmas Day.

Paul Emberley, a spokesman for East Coast Trains, said: “Network Rail has apologised to passengers for the inevitable delays to their travel plans on Saturday as a result of the overrunning engineering works.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Passengers wait at King’s Cross, London, where late engineering works have affected all services. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

“East Coast is particularly sorry, too, for the inconvenience to its customers as a result on what we know is an already very busy travel day immediately following the Christmas break.

“For customers intending to start or finish their journey at King’s Cross, consideration should be given to deferring travel plans to either Sunday or Monday.

“We’re working hard over the holiday period to make the necessary adjustments to our timetable as a consequence, and to provide as much information as we can.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “It is extremely disappointing that Network Rail’s engineering works have overrun and will affect travellers during this festive season, passengers will be rightly annoyed.

“This was essential work but passengers need to be able to plan and rely on Network Rail meeting its deadlines for having the network back in service.

“The department is in contact with Network Rail to understand what went wrong and if lessons can be learned for the future.”