At his surgeries and in his emails, Richard has heard from residents who feel they have no choice but to consider moving house because they simply cannot rely on the trains to get to work or to get home. Richard feels that this is unacceptable and recently brought together GTR, representatives of Biggleswade and Sandy Town Councils. representatives of the Rail User Groups, and Central Bedfordshire Councillors to discuss the problems face to face.
The level of service on the GTR Peterborough to London route, has been unreliable, unavailable and beyond irritation for myself and many of my constituents who rely on their service. Put simply: too often they cannot.
During my recent meeting with GTR, I expressed my sheer frustration with the inability of GTR to resolve the problems over years and then to peddle excuses dressed up as explanations. These are not explanations - they might have been 18 months ago, but not now. Now they are beyond annoying
The Rail Users Group and i needed solutions to the issues. Below is my summary of GTR’s response so judge for yourselves.
GTR confirmed that the 18:42 service will not be included in future timetables because it clashes with a service on the LNER train.
Issues raised by GTR included infrastructure signalling projects like the one on the Cambridge line and the East Coast mainline, trespassers on the line and weather resulting in dry ground and shrinking tracks but of course these are not unique issues to this part of the line.
As regards driver recruitment, GTR said there had been progress and they had recruited and trained 44 new drivers in the last year and had another 25 expected to join by May. However, I challenged the notion of progress, pointing out that hiring more drivers did not appear to have improved service for passengers. Driver sickness was noted as an issue. While I understand that some of this is unavoidable, I have asked GTR to share what they can about sickness trends including any recent spikes and whether there are differences between the Peterborough and Cambridge routes.
You deserve a reliable, transparent, and fair service, and I will keep pushing for that.
Richard has escalated this further and is seeking a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of GTR.
