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The £300,000-a-year boss of considered one of Britain’s busiest railway strains has agreed to resign after a string of overhead energy and monitor failures, together with one which left hundreds of passengers stranded on trains for hours.
Michelle Handforth, Community Rail managing director for the Wales & Western area from Paddington, is stepping down after the rail regulator launched an investigation into “poor punctuality” brought on by repeated faults and emergency closures.
Ms Handforth, who lives in Aberdeen and commutes to her job, usually by airplane, advised colleagues this week she had “taken the troublesome choice to resign”.
Seven trains — 4 Elizabeth line, two Heathrow Categorical and a Nice Western Railway intercity service — have been stranded when high-voltage overhead energy strains got here crashing down at Ladbroke Grove, close to Paddington, on 7 December. Passengers on the Elizabeth line commuter trains, which haven’t any bathrooms, have been compelled to urinate on seats or the tracks in darkness. Amongst these caught have been musician James Blunt and presenter Rachel Riley.
Overhead energy strains got here down close to Paddington on 7 December, inflicting main disruption
(PA)
It got here after a minimum of 5 different monitor faults, together with a damaged rail at Iver, close to Slough, on 21 November triggered cancellations and delays to providers between London and Bristol, Wales and southwest England.
The Workplace of Rail and Street (ORR) has launched an investigation into “efficiency points” on the road. Feras Alshaker, its director of efficiency and planning, stated Community Rail had improved elsewhere however the trunk route from Paddington “has continued to deteriorate, that means poor reliability and punctuality for passengers and freight”.
Regardless of the chaos, Ms Handforth, 60, will proceed to work her discover interval, assigned to “particular tasks.” She joined Community Rail in August 2020, having beforehand been boss of Aberdeen Harbour Board.
In July, it emerged she claimed nearly £10,000 within the final monetary yr for 72 flights in connection along with her job, as her contract allowed her to say journey and lodging bills. Community Rail spent a complete of £188,006 on UK home flights for workers and one other £315,026 on worldwide airplane journeys over the identical interval, in response to its annual report. Amongst Ms Handforth’s flights have been two £536 return journeys from Aberdeen to Bristol with Loganair.
It took as much as 4 hours to evacuate stranded passengers to security within the 7 December chaos at Ladbroke Grove
(PA Media)
Rob Cairns, who’s at the moment Community Rail’s jap regional capital supply director, will take over within the interim from 1 January till a everlasting successor will be discovered.
Community Rail confirmed Ms Handforth’s departure. Andrew Haines, Community Rail chief govt and one of many passengers caught up within the 7 December chaos, stated: “I want to thank Michelle for her laborious work and assist over these previous three and a half years.”
In her message to colleagues this week, Ms Handforth stated: “It’s been an actual privilege to work with you all by the highs and lows of the previous couple of years, and whereas this choice is an actual wrench to me, I imagine it’s the proper one for me, my household and the enterprise.”
Crumbling infrastructure on the western important line from Paddington has been blamed for the unreliability of the £18bn new Elizabeth line, which lastly opened in 2021. Nevertheless, it has additionally repeatedly been crippled by software program and door faults on its new trains.
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