When hundreds of passengers were left stranded on dark, cold trains for several hours near Paddington in west London earlier this month, one of those was the boss of the body responsible for Great Britain’s rail infrastructure.
Andrew Haines, Network Rail’s chief executive, said the halting of services to and from one of the UK’s busiest stations because of damaged overhead electric cables was a “painful experience” that showed how the railways had “gone backwards on customer service”.
