A politician says she is “disappointed and frustrated” by the disruption a new rail timetable has caused commuters in Enfield and Haringey.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has recently introduced a new schedule on its Great Northern Line branch, which serves commuters in parts of Enfield and Haringey.

The revised service has been beset with cancellations and disruptions, which the area’s London Assembly member Joanne McCartney described as “shambolic”.

Earlier today the London Assembly grilled rail bosses over the new GTR timetable that was launched on May 20 and caused severe disruption to passengers due to delays and cancellations of services.

Assembly members raised concerns over the fact that timetable changes were only finalised three weeks before the new timetable was due to be launched.

John Halsall, route managing director for Network Rail in south east England said rail bosses weren’t “waving the red flag” to stop plans going ahead at the time.

Commenting after the meeting, Ms McCartney said: “I have been very disappointed and frustrated with the huge level of disruption caused to commuters in Enfield and Haringey by the continuous delays and cancellations to Great Northern line services.

“Today, I raised the significant issues that Govia have had with the training and recruitment of drivers in anticipation of the recent timetable changes.”

Ms McCartney asked the rail bosses if GTR had acquired enough drivers ahead of the launch of the new timetable.

Mr Halsall said they needed 889 drivers for the timetable changes to go ahead and at the time had 898.

But he then revealed that the extra drivers had been recruited because many did not know the routes for the new timetable and needed extra driver training.

Ms McCartney continued: “Govia still have a lot to answer for on their shambolic handling of the changes and their failure to mitigate the resultant chaos.

“I have recently written to the Government to reiterate the case for the devolution of Great Northern services- the sooner the franchise is handed over to TfL, the better for local people”.