“Not possible” for DfT to consuult on MML timetable

THE Government has claimed it was “not possible” to consult on Midland Main Line timetable changes which mean that no fast East Midlands Trains expresses will call at Bedford or Luton during peak periods from May 20 ( RAIL 842).

It has further claimed that the changes “balances the needs of passengers across the routes”.

Rail Minister Paul Maynard told Nadine Dorries (Conservative, Mid-Bedfordshire) in a Commons Written Reply on December 21 that the Department for Transport expects approximately 1,500 passengers from Bedford and 500 from Luton to transfer to Thameslink trains when the EMT trains stop calling at Luton and Bedford. He said Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) was adding around 2,000 extra seats from Bedford and 3,000 from Luton.

GTR will remove intermediate stops from four trains in the morning and six in the evening, he said. But he claimed that the capacity improvements mean GTR will still provide more seats at those stations where Thameslink trains will no longer call.

Lords transport spokesman Baroness Sugg, in a Lords Written Reply the same day, said: “In order to realise the benefits of the Thameslink Programme and the planned upgrade to the Midland Main Line, to be completed in 2020, a temporary timetable has been developed from May 2018.

“This limits the impact to passengers until the planned capacity is fully available and balances the needs of passengers across the routes. This has resulted in the temporary removal of peak direction East Midlands Trains services between Bedford and Luton to St Pancras. At the same time a number of peak Thameslink services will operate a faster service to central London.

“It has not been possible to consult on these changes as is routinely done. The Department for Transport has given its authorisation for this approach.”

Sugg had been asked by Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat) about what consultation had been undertaken with local authorities, rail user groups and passengers. EMT will not serve Bedford or Luton on trains arriving at St Pancras between 0700 and 1000 or those leaving the capital between 1600 and 1900.

Sugg also told Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat) on the same day that the specific costs of each element of the MML upgrade are commercially sensitive “and cannot be released currently as this may prejudice future commercial arrangements by the Department for Transport and Network Rail”.

She then added that the £1 billion being spent on the MML was “the biggest upgrade since the MML was completed in 1870”. ■ See Fleet News, pages 28-29