Commuters furious as extra seats on rush-hour trains delayed until 2020

Rail commuters paying up to £4,000 a year for season tickets are furious after learning they must wait until 2020 for 4,000 extra seats on crowded peak-time trains.

Bim Afolami MP, whose Hitchin and Harpenden constituency is worst hit, has secured an adjournment debate in the Commons to highlight controversial changes to the Thameslink timetable.

He said passengers had been “kicked in the teeth” amid growing calls for Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, to intervene.

Extra seats for Harpenden services were understood to have been coming into service from May during annual timetable changes as part of Thameslink’s £7 billion rebuilding programme.

However, line upgrades have fallen behind schedule, meaning peak-time East Midlands trains will not stop at Bedford or Luton. Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) the parent company which operates under contract to the Government, was ordered by the Department for Transport (DfT) to “fast track” some services from Bedford to make up for the loss which means that Thameslink trains will not stop at some stations, including Harpenden.

Emily Ketchin, leader of the Harpenden Thameslink Commuters’ Group, said in a letter to Lilian Greenwood, leader of the transport select committee, that her station would lose seven fast and semi-fast trains to London in the morning peak, a figure which GTR disputes.

Ms Ketchin said: “There isn’t enough room on the trains as it is. If these changes go ahead we really will know the meaning of cattle class.”

Mr Afolami said: “The DfT instructions were a broad-brush approach. It did not say — to Thameslink — that you have to disadvantage Harpenden. I don’t think Thameslink considered it properly and they need to look at it again. Taking away services is a real kick in the teeth for commuters. The debate will highlight the situation and I want it to force a change of heart by the Government and for it to tell Thameslink to do something.”

One commuter said: “We’ve put up with cancelled services and disruption for a decade on the promise of a better service and longer trains — now, just as the work is completed, they do this. It’s treating people who pay their wages with utter contempt.”

A GTR spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, the changes to East Midlands Trains’ timetable and the request for us to mitigate this by fast-tracking some of our Bedford services means that similar improvements, with over 4,000 extra seats in the morning rush for Harpenden won’t now be realised until 2020 when a route modernisation programme north of Bedford is complete.”