More Misery For Passengers Despite End Of Train Strikes

Multiple failures cause disarray after latest national walkout

- Simon Calder

To the fury of rail passengers across Britain, the resumption of train services after a four-day Christmas strike turned into a shambles in many locations.

At London Paddington, hub for the west of England and South Wales, thousands of travellers hoping to return home after Christmas breaks turned up to catch trains that did not exist.

The first wave of departures to Cardiff, Oxford, Bristol and Plymouth was wiped out by overrunning engineering works at North Pole depot, close to Paddington.

Adrian Bevan was trying to get home from Paddington to Newton Abbot in Devon. "My train is nearly two hours late already," he told The Independent. "It's ridiculous. Just a disaster, again. Very, very disappointed, again.

"All I want to do is get on my train, drink my Thatchers and be happy."

Two American tourists were last seen heading for the exit from Paddington having booked a car to take them to a spa hotel Moreton-in-Marsh in the Cotswolds at a cost of £320. "We've already paid for treatments, and they start at 1pm," they said as they left.