Bedford Rail response to the Railway consultation on their December 2020 timetable

The following comments are made in response to the question “What further comments would you like to make in relation to the proposals for the December 2020 East Midlands Railway Timetable?”

Introduction Bedford Rail is a blog about the railways that serve Bedford. This consultation response is being submitted by the editor of the blog, and published on the blog alongside a post explaining the key points of the consultation to readers.

At a time when many train services across the UK are being enhanced and expanded, Bedford is in the very unusual situation of having its services substantially downgraded. EMR should recognise that Bedford is losing out as a result of the new timetable: it is losing its direct Intercity services to destinations north of , and its express services to are being made more than 10% slower. The reintroduction of peak-hours express services, while welcome, merely reverses an outrageous failure of planning across the rail sector that had extremely serious consequences for thousands of commuters from May 2018 onwards. Only is in a similar position in respect of losing its northbound connectivity, but it is not taking the same hit to journey times as Bedford, and is at least gaining more frequent express services. For travellers to and from Bedford, the unique extent of the degradation of our rail services will remain a bitter blow for many years. Despite these decisions being largely beyond its control, EMR therefore has much to do in order to foster a positive relationship with passengers in Bedford.

Peak services Although it is clear from the consultation paper and the Department for Transport’s invitation to tender (ITT) for the East Midlands Franchise that most of Bedford’s express services will be trains to and from , the ITT allows the possibility of three northbound long distance services departing St Pancras between 7am and 10am and calling at Bedford, over and above the services it mandates to Corby. EMR should confirm these stops at Bedford, which will avoid dealing a blow to commuters who need to reach destinations north of Kettering from Bedford, and can be done with minimal loss of time bearing in mind that the services will have exclusive use of platform 4 at Bedford, and will be formed of the rapidly accelerating class 180 and class 222 trains.

Counter-peak Intercity services The Department’s response to the franchise consultation promises additional peak hours stops by Intercity services at Bedford in the counter-peak direction. EMR should confirm that these stops will be made, and their frequency.

1 Pathing issues at Bedford Pathing difficulties around Bedford, particularly relating to platforms 1-3 which are shared with services, have been acute for some time. They were a key cause of the withdrawal of peak hours southbound services in 2018, and are today causing routine problems in delivering Thameslink’s advertised timetable in the evening peak, which seldom runs without disruption to substantial numbers of services. EMR should give further information of how it will be delivering the welcome promises it has made for the December timetable, given the extent of these potential constraints. Why is it confident that it can operate the reinstated peak hours services, and how great is the risk that the new timetable will prove either impossible to assemble, or fragile and prone to delay during the peaks?

Connections at Kettering EMR is proposing to exceed the minimum requirement for stops at Kettering in the ITT, which will mitigate some of the worst effects of the removal of long distance services from Bedford. This is welcome, but the consultation document is not entirely consistent on the interchange times that will be delivered at Kettering, citing them variously as ‘nine minutes’ and ‘typically nine minutes’. EMR should clarify whether the nine minute figure will be delivered consistently, or only on a portion of services.

Weekends The ITT envisages Sunday services in Bedford operating much as now: 1tph to Corby and 1tph Intercity. EMR should confirm that this will be maintained, even if a more intensive Corby service is implemented as well.

A consistent difficulty under present arrangements is the short-forming of daytime EMR services between Bedford and London at weekends, which are often overcrowded with leisure passengers. EMR should confirm the length of trains it will be running at weekends, and ensure that they are sufficient.

East West Rail Within the lifespan of the current franchise, and possibly as early as 2023, East West Rail will commence an hourly service between Bedford and Oxford. The journey time for this service is predicted to be one hour and six minutes. This will open up a faster route between Oxford and , , Beeston, East Midlands Parkway and than is currently possible via the West Midlands, but only with appropriate interchange being provided at Bedford - the only point at which East West Rail will cross the . The only option to achieve this improved connectivity will be to stop Intercity services at Bedford; the time savings would mostly be wiped out, and would certainly be made less reliable, by requiring an additional change at Kettering. EMR should acknowledge that it will have to address this issue in future, and signal its intention to open discussions with all stakeholders

2 in East West Rail, with a view to maximising the benefit from investment in East West Rail.

The recent announcement that East West Rail will come through Bedford Midland station when its Bedford to Cambridge section is completed confirms that, in the long term, good connections between MML Intercity services and EWR services at Bedford will be required. This makes the desirability of beginning to plan for improved interchange at Bedford Midland even greater.

Contingency The introduction of the December 2020 timetable relies on several factors outside EMR’s control. To instil confidence and trust in passengers, it should be transparent about the risks to the timetable, and the contingency measures it is putting in place. The two obvious risks are the late delivery of the electrification between Bedford and Corby by , and a delay to the cascade of class 360 trains from Greater Anglia (or a delay to the work to upgrade them for 110mph running north of Bedford). What measures will EMR implement if any of these scenarios come to pass?

For more information: http://bedfordrail.wordpress.com

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