Agenda item

Audio Recording – Start of Item – Session 1 - 1 hour 2 minutes 45 seconds

Ms Ros Southwood and Ms Becky Farrow, Hitchin Rail Commuters, thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee regarding the problems faced by commuters and other rail users following the introduction of the new rail timetable.

The Chairman thanked Ms Southwood and Ms Farrow fir their presentation.

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the Hitchin Committee agree and issue the following statement:

The Hitchin Committee is deeply concerned that the rail industry has failed to look after the interests of Hitchin residents in the planning and subsequent implementation of the Railplan 20/20 timetable changes.

In particular, the Committee is shocked that the changes have clearly been ill thought out, led to many hundreds of cancellations and ignored the warnings and concerns voiced by Hitchin Commuters over many weeks and months. This has led to huge amounts of stress and anxiety for travellers and their families with no certainty on journey times and regular overcrowding, which is likely to continue for weeks to come.

Ticketing arrangements are clearly confusing, inconsistent and irrational and need urgent attention and rationalisation.

We call upon Network Rail, Thameslink and Great Northern to publish the risk assessment carried out prior to these changes, details of its consultations with users and details of the remedial actions it will take to correct mistakes and careless timetabling and ticketing, which are clearly to the detriment of many groups of train travellers.

We will work closely with residents and with local Rail Groups such as Hitchin Rail Commuters and Hitchin Rail Users Group to help ensure remedial and new train timetables are fit for purpose and that disastrous changes like this can never happen again.”

(2)       That the above statement be sent to Bim Afolami MP, Network Rail, Thameslink and Great Northern Railways.

Audio Recording – Start of Item – Session 1 - 1 hour 2 minutes 45 seconds

Ms Ros Southwood and Ms Becky Farrow, Hitchin Rail Commuters, thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee regarding the problems faced by commuters and other rail users following the introduction of the new rail timetable and informed Members of the following:

·                The Hitchin Rail Users Facebook Group was set up in April 2018 and already had 1,100 members;

·                The group was initially set up as they were unhappy with the timetable proposals for May 2018;

·                Users were upset with the disinformation and disorganisation that characterised the new timetable that was detrimental to commuters from Hitchin;

·                The new timetable had a great impact on working parents in particular;

·                The previous timetable offered great rail times, but the new version provided less flexibility and additional time commuting resulting in people having less time with their family;

·                The new time table reduced the service from 4 trains to 2 at peak times in the mornings, causing overcrowding and difficulties getting to work by 9am;

·                There were now fewer trains stopping at Finsbury Park and no trains stopping at this station between 7.41am and 8.10am;

·                There was a loss of trains during evening peak time and the journey now took longer;

·                There were slower trains across the timetable and the new rolling stock had a lot less seats which caused concern, particularly for vulnerable and disabled passengers;

·                Hitchin commuters had been informed that they could no longer purchase season tickets for travelling to St Pancras with out paying extra, whereas St Albans passengers could purchase season tickets to cover all stations;

·                In 2015/16 there were 3.2 million rail journeys;

·                The past two weeks had been chaos with trains consistently being cancelled or delayed;

·                In the first week of the new timetable 70 percent of trains were cancelled and less than 50 percent were on time causing stress and anxiety and, in some cases, loss of oncome for users:

·                Critical services such as Police were being affected as Officers could not guarantee getting to work;

·                Wheelchair users were finding it almost impossible to get onto the crowded trains;

·                They had sent a letter Chris Grayling with 200 signatures but as yet had not received a response;

·                They had written to Charles Haughton, Govia Thameslink to ask for a meeting, but as yet had not received a response;

·                They had met with Bim Afolami MP and with the Harpenden Rail Users Group to exchange ideas:

·                They were discussing the possibility of a public meeting;

·                Media coverage had been good with BBC Look East, 3 Counties Radio and BBC News interested.

In response to questions from Members Ms Southwood and Ms Farrow advised:

·                There had been a few different issues that had caused the recent problems including that the new timetable was introduced too quickly, there were not enough drivers trained on the new routes and there were problems with the services for Brighton, which had a knock-on effect on services further up the line.

·                Timetables should have been published 12 weeks in advance but were published just 2 weeks before implementation;

Ms Southwood concluded by asking anyone in the Rail User Group with specialist skills to make themselves known, as there was still a lot of work to do.

Members expressed gratitude for the work that the Rail Users Group had done and for highlighting the issues being faced.

The Chairman thanked Ms Southwood and Ms Farrow for their presentation.

Members discussed the many problems faced by commutes at present and the issues that had caused those problems.

One Member advised that there was a new tunnel linking Finsbury Park to St Pancras and that there were not enough drivers trained to go through this tunnel.

Members noted that the deadline for submissions regarding the December timetable was 22 June 2018.

It was proposed and seconded that the Committee issue a statement laying out their concerns about the new timetable, cancellations and delays of scheduled train services and the effect this was having on Commuters travelling from Hitchin.

Members acknowledged that the Committee did not have jurisdiction over transport issues, but were supportive of the statement.

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the Hitchin Committee agree and issue the following statement:

The Hitchin Committee is deeply concerned that the rail industry has failed to look after the interests of Hitchin residents in the planning and subsequent implementation of the Railplan 20/20 timetable changes.

In particular, the Committee is shocked that the changes have clearly been ill thought out, led to many hundreds of cancellations and ignored the warnings and concerns voiced by Hitchin Commuters over many weeks and months. This has led to huge amounts of stress and anxiety for travellers and their families with no certainty on journey times and regular overcrowding, which is likely to continue for weeks to come.

Ticketing arrangements are clearly confusing, inconsistent and irrational and need urgent attention and rationalisation.

We call upon Network Rail, Thameslink and Great Northern to publish the risk assessment carried out prior to these changes, details of its consultations with users and details of the remedial actions it will take to correct mistakes and careless timetabling and ticketing, which are clearly to the detriment of many groups of train travellers.

We will work closely with residents and with local Rail Groups such as Hitchin Rail Commuters and Hitchin Rail Users Group to help ensure remedial and new train timetables are fit for purpose and that disastrous changes like this can never happen again.”

(2)       That the above statement be sent to Bim Afolami MP, Network Rail, Thameslink and Great Northern Railways.