This week I travelled from Wolverhampton to Nottingham by train.
It was another example of how unreliable and uncomfortable rail travel can be. Not that I needed reminding.
There was a second morning of disruptions yesterday as the network recovered from a 90‑second power outage.
For me, it came 12 days after an exhausting trip to Scarborough I won’t forget in a hurry.
My West Midlands Trains service to Birmingham on Thursday to continue to Nottingham was on time, one of the few that was.
I gambled over which connection to take, the punctual one or a delayed service. I chose correctly, but only after lugging my case up and down stairs because one lift was out of order and the other was swamped with passengers and enormous suitcases.
I hoped to sit down at Birmingham. No chance. Every seat was taken, so I perched on a ledge by the stairs next to a woman from Long Eaton who told me the Nottingham service was rubbish.
She didn’t wait long to be proved right. Two CrossCountry Nottingham trains were cancelled. Six minutes before the 3.49pm departure, a barely audible tannoy announcement informed us our train was cancelled, the next one too, and the platform was closing. The first service would be at 5.09pm. We were told to go upstairs. I thought they said there was a fire as I couldn’t hear.
People looked stunned. Some quickly walked away.
An elderly man said he’d try a bus to Tamworth, lamenting the lack of rail replacement services.
BBC Online later showed the problem was widespread, with multiple operators unable to provide alternatives, leaving passengers stranded.
Platform scramble
By the time the next available train arrived, the atmosphere among waiting passengers had soured.
When another announcement popped up as our train was due to arrive, it was a platform change.
My anxiety rose as the crowd started to feel like a crush as we followed the train further down the new platform before it stopped. Children were crying as they were accidentally trod on by people jostling past. Groups with lots of luggage were a little bewildered, their cases blocking the way. Tempers were fraying.
It was obvious we wouldn’t all fit on.
As I hauled myself and my case into a tiny space by the door, someone shouted I couldn’t get on because there was no room. “Watch me,” I whispered under my breath and suggested people move down the carriage a touch more.
I looked back at the platform: a sea of sad and angry faces, now being told to stay put.
I stood until Burton.
After a recent ordeal with TransPennine Express, this was another kick in the teeth.
Just under a fortnight ago, after paying £125 each for an open return, plus £35 for a couple’s railcard, my partner and I stood for around two hours after being turfed out of seats nobody could tell were booked.
We were crammed into a narrow corridor beside what appeared to be a broken toilet, its door jammed shut. People came and went as they found out it was out of use.
At one point a strongly intoxicated, confrontational man insisted on using it, hammering on the door and shouting at whoever he thought was inside.
When two women eventually emerged, a smell of sick was overwhelming.
Then our train from York was about an hour late.
As a hen party group excitedly shouted at each other, on our platform, my head pounded.
Number crunching
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) reports 336,332 complaints were closed in the year April 2025 to March 2026, a 4% increase year-on-year.
The most common issues are punctuality and reliability, ticketing and refunds, and information during disruption.
Nationally, 3.2% of services were cancelled between January and March 2026.
TransPennine Express exceeded this with 4.77% cancellations, and some of its routes saw fewer than half of trains arriving on time.
West Midlands Trains continues to struggle with complaint satisfaction: only 21% of passengers were happy with how their complaint was handled.
Crowding remains a major concern. My experience this week, especially the scramble to board, reflected that pressure.
Nostalgia for a human presence
My grandad spent his working life on the railways, retiring as a British Rail guard in the 1980s.
He believed passengers deserved to know what was happening. I still remember him in his uniform, smiling broadly, and his railway pocket watch proudly on show in his bungalow after he retired.
A traditional guard was often a steadying human presence. They checked or supervised doors, monitored platforms during departure, helped passengers who were unsure or anxious, and provided information when services were disrupted.
They may not have had all the answers, but they were visible and available for reassurance.
During this week’s disruption, a guard could have helped explain what was happening, answered questions and reduced some of the uncertainty.
British Rail had its faults, but passengers knew who was in charge.
Today’s railway is fragmented. Infrastructure is managed by one body, services by many, each with different systems and approaches. When disruption strikes, passengers navigate conflicting information.
Communication is the easiest problem to fix
A few years ago I worked as a PR adviser on a heritage project with a regional operator. The job was full of delays and disorganisation, and I spent months chasing for payment. Never again. It made me question why PR was being prioritised when delayed passengers struggled to get clear information during disruption. Naively, I didn’t expect the same external comms woes to be mirrored in-house.
Passengers do not expect perfection. We expect clarity. Yet during disruption, communication can collapse. Staff are left without information. Announcements are vague or inaudible. On Thursday, I got my information from BBC Online because I couldn’t hear details over the tannoy.
Poor communication adds to my anxiety. Better explanations and earlier warnings would have eased my state of mind. The long gap until the 5.09pm train could have been acknowledged with more detail. And the absence of replacement buses could have been addressed directly.
The following steps would help:
• A national standard for disruption messaging
• Clear explanations for cancellations
• Consistent information across all channels
• Better staff training to communicate uncertainty
• Crowd management guidance
Whatever structure Britain’s railways ultimately adopt, many passengers care less about ownership than about whether trains run on time and whether someone tells them what is happening when they don’t.
Rail travel will never be perfect.
Trains will fail, power will go out and delays will hit.
We remember how we are treated when things go wrong.
On Thursday, technology stalled for 90 seconds. Communication failed for much longer.
My grandad would have recognised the first. I am not sure he, like the rest of us, would have understood what came next.