Watford Euston train services
Posted by Claire Ward, MP for Watford, at 17:07, Tue 24 March 2009:
Press release from Claire Ward MP for Watford
For immediate release
March 24th 2009
MP sees light at the end of the tunnel for Watford Commuters
There was good news for commuters using the Watford to Euston train services following talks in London today between Watford MP, Claire Ward, and train boss, Steve Banaghan.
The MP was told that at least nine new services will be introduced for Watford, Bushey and Harrow over the next few months after she had received hundreds of complaints about an "appalling service" with poor time keeping, overcrowding and missed connections.
Ms Ward presented the findings of her Better Trains survey to Mr Banaghan ,the Managing Director of London Midland which took over local train services from the previous operator Silverlink in December last year.
Claire said “My survey clearly shows that people remain very unhappy with the services as they currently run. There are too many delays and cancellations and carriages are at times dangerously overcrowded. The survey also displayed that more than anything passengers want an increased number of train services at peak times. Mr Banaghan has thanked me for the useful contribution my survey has made and notes that its findings are similar to London Midlands own research.”
“I am pleased to say that thanks to my efforts and the outrage expressed by so many commuters, London Midland are reasonably confident that they will be able to introduce nine new “bounce back” train services which will go directly from London Euston to Watford Junction and then back via Bushey and Harrow at peak times. This could mean as many as 2,500 extra seats per day and will make a huge difference directly to those commuters who use those stations as well as indirectly to passengers travelling from stations like Kings Langley.”
“I made it clear to Mr Banaghan that things are still not good enough but these extra services will be a good start to resolving the problems with rail services in my constituency. Mr Banaghan will contact me in the next few weeks to let me know if he receives approval for the services.”
If successfully introduced, the nine new services (five in the morning, four in the evening) will be brought in from May 2009 onward.
Ends
Claire's website can be found at www.claire-ward.org.uk
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