Network Fail as angers grows over East Coast Main Line closure debate – The Yorkshire Post says

Exclusive: Network Rail admit erriors after East Coast Main Line closure decision not passed on for up to four months

Rail chiefs should have known that the decision, taken as long ago as February 14, would cause immense inconvenience to tens of thousands of spectators attending major global and cultural events over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

’Staggering’ timing of East Coast Main Line closure condemned by event organisers

They should not have left it so late to start briefing MPs and others. And there should have been far more clarity, from the outset, about the availability of trains on other routes – notably the Sheffield to St Pancras line.

MP wants heads banging together over closure furore after key East Coast Main Line body fails to meet for eight months

One reason is the revelation that the East Coast Supervisory Board – set up in August 2017 under the chairmanship of the then Welcome To Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity – has not met for eight months.

York racecourse and top hotel demand answers and sat East Coast line closure can’t come at a worse time

Given its very remit was to improve communication between Network Rail, train operators and the business community, and that Welcome To Yorkshire says that it only found out about the line closure when contacted by officials from York Racecourse last month, this failure needs to be addressed straight away.

Network Rail fails Yorkshire over Bank Holiday closure of East Coast Main Line – The Yorkshire Post says

For, while engineering work will always be disruptive to a degree, its impact can be mitigated against if the railway industry works in partnership with business leaders and passenger groups. And given the number of rail users and experts who have come forward to register their interest in serving on such a body, Network Rail should recruit them to a new-look Supervisory Board – they could not do a worse job.