Originally Posted by
AirportPlanner1
The long distance mainlines have been improved massively eg London - Manchester. A lot of the commuter lines from surrounding counties into London have gone backwards probably due to increasing passenger numbers and congestion.
Greater Anglia frequencies have been massively cut across the board, as have similar operators and lines due to changing work patterns. Stansted is a bit of a special case, if passenger numbers recover to pre-Covid levels there is no justification for rail services to not do the same.
Worth also mentioning (although not Stansted related) that Peak Thameslink journeys into London from St Albans have increased from 18 mins about 3-4 years ago to nearer 25 mins now, so agree, whilst long distance might have improved, commuter journeys have become slower. I'm pretty sure I remember 35 min journeys from Liverpool St to Stansted not so long ago (Might have imagined that...)