Note from Thameslink

Thameslink (Govia Thameslink Railway – GTR) rail replacement buses between St Albans City station and St Pancras from 23:00 Friday 19 June – 06:30 on Monday 22 June 2015

Over the above weekend Network Rail will be carrying out major engineering work on the Midland Mainline. As a result no trains will run between St Albans City and St Pancras International from late Friday evening 19 June until early on Monday 22 June.

Trains will run from St Pancras International for Gatwick and Brighton.

During this period Thameslink will run a maximum of four trains an hour between Bedford and St Albans City and vice versa. Trains from Bedford will arrive on platform 3 and will depart for Bedford from platform 4, which adjoins the Ridgmont Road car park. Trains will shunt (out of passenger service) between the Up Fast and the Down Fast lines at Radlett Junction and will not serve Radlett station.

Thameslink (GTR) plan to run a mix of ‘fast’ buses travelling non-stop from St Albans City to St Pancras International and ‘all stations’ services. Typically there will be 4 ‘fast’ buses and 2 ‘all stations’ buses leaving St Albans City station every 15 minutes, i.e. 24 buses an hour departing and 24 buses an hour arriving.

At Friday’s Highways and Wast Management Cabinet Panel the ruling Conservative Group decided to press on with harsh, politically motivated cuts to bus funding.

These cuts will mean that many bus services will stop at 7pm and not run at weekends. Tens of thousands of local people have petitioned the Council in two rounds of protests to try and save essential transport links.

Stephen Giles-Medhurst (Leader of the opposition and Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Central Watford and Oxhey) spoke vigorously at the meeting against these cuts, and after the meeting commented: “This drives a coach and horses through public transport in the county.  Those who cannot drive, or cannot afford to drive are now consigned to a 7.30pm curfew in many parts of the County.

“Thousands of people from across the County have petitioned HCC on two occasions now to stop these cuts. The savings have already been made elsewhere – this is part of the Tory austerity plan, rather than there being a genuine need to save money.  I do fear for the future for the elderly and those unable to afford a private vehicle who rely on public transport.  This it the Tories at their worst, hitting the most vulnerable in society, and given the massive under spend it is totally unnecessary.

“I do question the timing of this – did the Conservatives delay this until after the General Election to help win votes?”

(more…)

This report makes interesting reading: In touch period 11 2015

Commenting on today’s Which? Report showing Govia Thameslink has the worst passenger satisfaction of all the rail companies in the UK, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Sandy Walkington said: “This must come as no surprise. Yet it relates to survey work conducted in November 2014 so does not even include the horrible performance record of 2015. It also flatters Thameslink since the figures combine customer satisfaction for the Thameslink route through St Pancras with the relatively smoothly functioning Great Northern service out of Kings Cross also operated by GTR.

“We are seeing a railway company in denial – with continuing failures to communicate and a compensation mechanism which still fails to recognise the grinding waste of time created by constant failure to deliver the timetable.”

Cllr Chris White, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on St Albans District Council, said “We have contacted colleagues along the whole route to ensure a joint approach to this problem. We have also contacted Susan Kramer, rail minister, to ask her to use all her powers to force GTR to get a grip on its railway and deliver the promises made when it took on the franchise.”

A summary of the Which? findings is at http://www.which.co.uk/home-and-garden/leisure/reviews-ns/best-and-worst-uk-train-companies/best-train-companies-overall/

From Network Rail

You may or may not be aware that Network Rail has called off the Feb closures as a result of a 350,000 tonne landslide at Harbury, which is blocking the Chiltern line into London Marylebone.

As part of the February closures, the industry was advising passengers to use alternative routes into London. This included the Chiltern route into London Marylebone, from Birmingham via Banbury.

Originally it was estimated that this line would be re-opened before the Watford improvement works began. However it has now been confirmed that the line will be closed for several weeks. As a result, Network Rail has called off the improvement works at Watford and London Midland will instead be running a special train timetable during the closures instead. Details of this will become available early next week.

The links below take you to the London Midland passenger information leaflets for both the West Coast Main Line and Abbey Line closures this February. These can also be downloaded from the London Midland website:

Euston Line

Abbey Line

www.londonmidland.com/watford

From 21:00 this evening we are closing the Thameslink tunnel between London St Pancras and Farringdon. This is to allow Network Rail engineers access to try to repair damage caused by a reoccurring water leak. Throughout the evening peak we will be running a heavily reduced service, mainly as a result of the problems but also to place on both sides of the river ready for this split service.

The route between Farringdon and St Pancras will remain closed until Network Rail assures that we can run a full service again.

We would like to sincerely apologise for the continued severe disruption you are experiencing if travelling on Thameslink.

Ticket acceptance is in place with East Midlands, Southern, LUL, Great Northern, Southeastern, London Buses, UNO buses, Metrolink, Arriva and Tramlink. We are also running shuttle services between Great Northern and Thameslink routes between Welwyn Garden City – St Albans and Hitchin – Luton/Luton Airport Parkway.

Advice for this evening:

• Northbound passengers to travel from London St Pancras
• Southbound passengers to travel from London Blackfriars, Victoria or Waterloo

Notice from the county council

NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using that length of Sopwell Lane, St Albans from its junction with Thorpe Road north westwards to its junction with A5183 Holywell Hill, a distance of approximately 285 metres.

The purpose of the Order is to enable utility maintenance works to take place.

The section of road will be closed for approximately 3 days during the period 16 February 2015 and 18 February 2015, when signs are in place. An alternative signed route will be provided for traffic whilst the road closure is in place.

If you have any queries about the utility maintenance works or the temporary road closure, please contact Tony Perring tel. 07875116993 at UK Power Networks Ltd or David Parkinson tel. 0300 123 4047 at Hertfordshire County Council.