The chairman of transport giant Stagecoach has admitted that new trains being introduced are only half as reliable as the 50-year-old stock they are replacing.
Graham Eccles said the old rolling stock could travel for 60,000-100,000 miles without a breakdown, compared with 60,000 for the more sophisticated new trains.
Mr Eccles - whose company runs South West Trains - also expressed concern about the scaling back of plans to improve power supplies, saying it could affect services.
A £1bn plan to boost power supplies in the South East has been cut back to £600,000 and less power will be available.
Mr Eccles said that could cause problems if a number of trains started up at the same time following a stoppage.
However, Mr Eccles said the performance of firms including SWT had improved and infrastructure company Network Rail was "starting to get better".
He said the next 12 months will be a "crunch" year and if Network Rail could not continue improving its performance, the industry would have problems.
Tuesday December 16, 2003
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