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(Sharecast News) - Go-Ahead Group's Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) was facing a £5m fine on Thursday, after the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) found that it had failed to provide appropriate, accurate and timely information to passengers following the introduction of a new timetable last May.The regulator said that, following the severe disruption caused by the introduction of the May 2018 timetable and findings from a subsequent independent inquiry, it initiated a further investigation into whether GTR - on its Thameslink and Great Northern routes - and Northern - operated by Deutsche Bahn subsidiary Arriva - did everything they reasonably could to provide information to enable passengers to plan and make their journeys in both the run-up to the timetable introduction, and during the disruption that followed.Govia Thameslink Railway is a subsidiary of Govia, which itself is a joint venture between 65% owner Go-Ahead Group and 35% owner Keolis.The ORR said that, having considered "substantial" evidence, it found that GTR did take reasonable steps in making passengers aware of the planned changes prior to the new timetable.However, following the timetable change on 20 May, and in the eight weeks that followed, the regulator said it was evident that GTR failed to appropriately balance the steps it was taking to improve services with the need for passenger information to an unacceptable extent and duration.In particular, it found that some trains were permanently removed from the timetable, but passengers were not clearly informed until several weeks later.Further trains were also removed or cancelled on a daily basis, leading to very short notice changes to the timetable and a severe lack of certainty for passengers up until the point of travel.Some trains were then reintroduced, but with insufficient time to input journey information into systems, meaning the 'ghost trains' arrived at stations with staff and passengers unaware of their arrival or where they were expected to stop.Replacement buses were used on some routes, but prolonged delays in providing information in journey planners meant many passengers were not aware that they were available.Additionally, the ORR said inadequate internal communications often left frontline staff with little or no information to assist passengers in making their journey.It explained that the effect of those failures left passengers with "very little notice or certainty" about whether trains that were running on one day would run or be the same the following day.A separate ORR investigation into Northern found that, although in many cases passengers did experience inadequate information in the two weeks that immediately followed the timetable introduction, the operator had considered and then took reasonable steps to give passengers appropriate, accurate and timely information both prior to and during the disruption.An interim timetable was introduced to Northern routes on 4 June which the ORR said stabilised service levels, improved performance, and enabled the provision of better information to passengers, and as such, no further action would be taken against Northern.The regulator said it had also written to all train operators and the state-owned infrastructure operator Network Rail, requiring them to review crisis management plans in light of the findings and to ensure that appropriate arrangements were in place for assisting passengers with disabilities in times of disruption, planned and unplanned."The disruption experienced by many passengers as a result of the May timetable introduction was awful," said ORR deputy director for consumers, Stephanie Tobyn."When disruption happens, poor quality information makes an already difficult and frustrating situation worse."Tobyn said the "exceptional circumstances" that followed the introduction of the timetable meant that providing perfect advance information for passengers was from the outset an impossible task, with GTR's overriding focus apparently on providing as much capacity as it could to meet customer demand."However, persistent and prolonged failures in information provision meant that passengers couldn't benefit from the operational improvement it was trying to make."