Extra Watford Junction - Euston services from May

Watford Euston train services

Press release from Claire Ward MP for Watford

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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John Burke
WRUG