One of my campaign pledges was to ensure that the train service provided to my constituents drastically improves. On the morning after the General Election, I called the Head of Corporate Affairs at West Midlands Trains to request a meeting. They were the first people I called as the poor train service has such a big impact on so many residents who commute from Watford Junction, Kings Langley and Bushey. I also used Prime Minister’s Question time to ensure that the matter was raised in the House of Commons.
People are leaving home stressed as they do not know if they will be able to get to work on time, or when they will able to return home after a long day at work. Commuters are incurring fines for picking their kids up late, or are missing evening plans with friends, or unable to get to their gym class thanks to constant delays.
The meeting took place last month, and I was joined by my neighbouring MPs who also hear regularly from constituents that are fed up of delays, cancellations and crowded trains.
We had a very frank and robust discussion in which it was made clear that the service provided is unacceptable. A zone 1-9 travelcard costs £3764.00, this is a considerable cost to many commuters and is clearly not providing value for money. I hear too regularly from passengers that cannot board delayed trains as there are not enough carriages, or that are fed up with trains being cancelled with very little notice and without explanation.
West Midlands Trains sent me a letter, which you can read in full on my Facebook page, outlining the reasons for the poor service, and the short, medium and long-terms measures that they are making to improve passenger experience. They openly admitted that their performance in the second half of 2019 was unacceptable and was the result of changes from the May 2019 timetable. They have said that “it proved to be too ambitious and complex and didn’t have enough resilience to recover, meaning that individual delays could affect large parts of the network when things went wrong.”
At the end of March, they plan to introduce six additional trains which will allow the introduction of additional carriages at peak time on the busiest of trains. They will also take further complexity out of the timetable and are in the process of recruiting over 80 extra staff to help provide greater resilience and reduce vulnerability to cancelling trains. They will also invest £700 million to increase their fleet by 25% and provide 10,000 extra seats each day, these trains are due to be in service during 2021.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has also been clear that WMT have failed to meet contractual performance levels and has instructed them to spend £20 million to improve services and compensate passengers. He has quite rightly said that he will take action should improvements not be delivered swiftly.
I will be meeting again with WMT prior to the introduction of the new timetable in May 2020. They must address both continued performance issues and overcrowding as a priority, and I look forward to seeing a marked improvement. I will constantly be holding them to account and I welcome your continued feedback on the service. As Watford’s MP it is my job to make sure that I am listening and taking direction from you.
