St Albans City and District Council’s Local Services Scrutiny Committee registered concern about the deteriorating standard of the Thameslink service at a meeting on Thursday 4 December.
Committee members voiced concern about the service after questioning senior management from Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and Network Rail. They also raised more than 20 questions about Thameslink’s performance sent by members of the public to the Committee in advance of the meeting. These included questions about the late running of trains, cancellations, overcrowding and use of four carriage trains at peak hours.
During questioning, senior management from GTR admitted that performance of the Thameslink service had been in decline since September 2013. They said this had continued after GTR took over the franchise on 14 September 2014. They explained that the deterioration was due to a combination of poor weather and a number of incidents and project work along the route.
GTR senior management also admitted that many trains were old and nearing the end of their lifespan and that more drivers were needed. They promised to recruit more drivers. They also described details of their plans to introduce new trains over the next few years.
They said that from 2015 there will be more fast trains to St Albans between 10pm and midnight and by 2018 almost all fast trains will comprise 12 cars. GTR is also planning to provide better customer information and ticket purchasing options and improvements to St Albans station.
The Committee thanked management from GTR and Network Rail for engaging with Councillors before formally registering its concern about the deterioration in service. It also agreed to facilitate a meeting between St Albans District Access Group with GTR to discuss access to rail travel and stations for people with disabilities.
Cllr Anthony Rowlands, Chair of the Local Services Scrutiny Committee, said: “It was significant that so many people contacted the Committee with their questions in response to our appeal for comments ahead of the meeting. One of the recurrent themes was anger and frustration that Govia’s performance has been worse even than its predecessor, First Capital Connect.
“At the meeting Govia accepted that there had been a deterioration since they took over the franchise blaming a range of factors including train and track unreliability, driver non-availability and changes at London Bridge. Committee members questioned why Govia had apparently failed to foresee these problems.
“Figures show that 23.6% of trains were over 5 minutes late in the period 12 October to 8 November 2014. This bore out the complaints of many questioners whose daily experience is of a service where punctuality is the exception and unreliability the norm. What neither Govia nor Network Rail could cast any light on was when the Holy Grail of a good level of service would be achieved.
“Meanwhile, commuters will continue to pay thousands of pounds for a poor service,” added Cllr Rowlands