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Calamity-prone Tory Chris Grayling has refused to resign despite a damning report into this summer's rail chaos finding "nobody took charge".

The government today launched the biggest review of the railways since privatisation after a scathing watchdog verdict on disruption on Thameslink and Northern Rail.

But asked by the BBC if he would consider his position Mr Grayling said: "My job, my position, is to get this sorted."

Instead he blamed "fragmented decision making" and said: "I’m not going to point the finger at individuals.

"It's a system problem, it's the way the whole industry works, that's what the review says."

Mr Grayling has spent six years in the Cabinet, one of the longest-serving current ministers round the table, despite being infamous for his failed policies.

(Image: PA) (Image: Internet Unknown) (Image: PA)

He held the Justice Secretary job for less than three years yet his prisoner book ban,court fees and a training deal with Saudi Arabia have all been ditched.

A £23m prisoner tracking scheme he unveiled was also axed, while the Court of Appeal slammed another legal aid cut that forced domestic violence victims to show evidence to get a lawyer.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) today published its report into what went wrong with the biggest rail timetable change in a generation, which was introduced in May.

It blamed rail industry “failures” for the chaos which caused misery for passengers, but also said Mr Grayling's Department for Transport (DfT) was "aware of the risks" and its slow response "aggravated the challenge of rewriting the timetable".

The report added: "Had the final decision by DfT to phase the introduction of services been aligned with the schedule for developing the timetable in August 2017, the unpredicted consequences for the Thameslink timetable may have been avoided and the consequential risks of a timetabling failure on the scale experienced would have been greatly reduced."

(Image: PA)

Mr Grayling also refused today to heed Labour's calls for rail nationalisation.

He claimed that since privatisation the railways have enjoyed "unprecedented growth and success" and "we’re now a victim of that success".

The Tory minister told Sky News: "I’m very much a believer in public-private partnership… it’s not that state ownership is a panacea."

However, he added: "I think now the structure that was created 25 years ago in which you have fragmentation of track and train in different parts of the industry is no longer delivering for passengers."

Train operators, Network Rail and the Department for Transport and even ORR itself were all criticised for making mistakes in the hard-hitting report, which came nearly two months after Transport Secretary Chris Grayling told MPs: ”I don’t run the railways.”

The hapless cabinet minister dubbed ‘failing’ Grayling shunted blame for the rail timetable chaos into the sidings when he appeared before the all-party Commons Transport Select Committtee.

Today - in the wake of the report - Mr Grayling announced a wide-ranging review into the running of the railways, which came under fire from Labour and rail union leaders.

It will be led by Keith Williams - deputy chairman of John Lewis and former chief executive of British Airways - who will be supported by an external panel.

But Andy McDonald, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, said: “Rail passengers don’t need another review from the Tories to tell them that rail is broken. Another review is meaningless in a year of rocketing fares, failing franchises and timetabling chaos.

“Another review lets Chris Grayling off the hook. The railways need a Labour government which will deliver public ownership of rail.”

And Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT union, said: ”The announcement of yet another so-called ‘independent’ review of a system that is broken beyond repair is a total distraction.

(Image: Phil Harris / Daily Mirror)

“The railways should be publicly owned, safe, secure and accessible for all and not a vehicle simply for private greed.”

He branded the ORR report a “whitewash” that ignored the “dire consequences of nearly twenty five years of privatisation, fragmentation and exploitation on Britain’s railways.”

In the timetable chaos passengers on Northern and Thameslink networks were particularly badly hit, leaving tens of thousands stranded by reduced or cancelled services.

The ORR report says that during the planning stages the industry placed engineering and planning concerns ahead of serving its passengers, and that was made worse by the poor information train operators provided when disruption happened.

It states that a key issue was an apparent gap in industry responsibility and accountability for managing systemic risks, and adds”that needs to change.”

Professor Stephen Glaister, inquiry chairman, said:“The May 2018 timetable was meant to offer more services and reliability, but in reality it led to major disruption for passengers.

“Central to the issues were that good intentions and over-optimism within the rail industry about its ability to recover missed deadlines left no time to uncover and fix problems.

“When problems arose, timetable planners were stretched and train operators were ill-equipped to help passengers. This meant that staff worked in very difficult circumstances to do as good a job as possible and I thank them for their efforts.”

The ORR, was asked by Mr Grayling to set up an inquiry into the May timetable chaos, led by its chairman, Professor Stephen Glaister.

Final recommendations to the rail industry and the government about how to handle major changes in future will be released by the end of the year.

More than a third (36%) of Thameslink trains were delayed by at least five minutes between May 27 and June 23, compared with 18% in the same period last year.

The proportion of Great Northern trains failing to hit the same punctuality target rose from 16% to 30%.

A series of failures have previously been blamed for the timetable chaos, including Network Rail’s delayed electrification projects in the North, poor planning by train operators and the decision by transport ministers to phase in the introduction of new Govia Thameslink Railway services.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, said: “The ORR report puts the blame where it belongs, at the door of the train operating companies; the DfT and Network Rail.

“The train companies did not plan properly. They do not employ enough drivers to run the services they promise, in their franchise applications, to deliver and they started driver training far too late. The DfT was, as usual, asleep at the wheel and Network Rail was behind on track enhancements.

“The result was that passengers suffered cancellations, delays and frustration for months, which would have been far, far worse had it not been for train drivers, and other staff, who showed enormous flexibility in helping the companies through a crisis of their own devising.”