With Govia incapable of running the rail franchise Thasmelink the seeds are being sown for a 4 train an hour non stop service with East Midland trains.
Calls for more fast trains at Luton Airport Parkway increase - Luton Today
Luton Borough Council is set to write to the Department for Transport in a bid to secure more fast trains at Parkway station.
At present just one East Midlands train an hour stops off at Luton Airport Parkway on route to London St Pancras.
As this journey takes just over 20 minutes Luton Airport is in advanced discussions with the Department for Transport to up the frequency of stopoffs at Parkway to four per hour.
At a meeting on Monday next week Luton Borough Council’s executive are set to agree proposals to back this move by lobbying the Department for Transport.
In a report Robin Porter, LBC’s director of commerical and transformation services, has said that without the increase Luton Airport will be at a “significant commercial disadvantage in comparison to the other London airports.”
Luton Airport chief executive Nick Barton welcomed LBC’s backing.
He told the Herald & Post: “As our plans to improve the airport and increase capacity continue, so does the need to create strong public transport connections.
“Fast East Midlands Train services from London St Pancras already reach Luton Airport Parkway in 20 minutes once every hour.
“Our future vision, as part of the upcoming rail franchise, is to increase this to four fast trains per hour to improve connectivity and significantly increase the number of people using rail to access the airport.
“The council’s support for such a vision highlights the improvements that an increase in fast trains would bring to the local and surrounding communities,” he added.
DfT is set to start the planning process for the East Midlands franchise this spring, ready for the start of operation in March 2018.
I wish LLA and the council all the best trying to get get four trains an hour out of East Midlands Trains, to stop at the airport, it pure and simply is not going to happy!
I live in Wellingborough which EMT is the main train operator serving the town. The train operator is doing everything in their power to speed up train times and not adding additional stops!
There are currently only five trains an hour in each direction off-peak and three of these trains run non-stop from Market Harborough/Leicester to London. The other two an hour stop at Kettering, Wellingborough and Bedford. With one of those also stopping at Luton town and other at the airport.
EMT has some of the longest journey times incomparison to other inter-city operators when you compare journey times to distance. This is due to the line speeds and capacity. They have made some big improvements to train times in recent years, but I barely think they will be prepared to have 80% of their services calling at LLA Parkway. There are also no new trains on order and suffer overcrowding at many times of the day,and adding the additonal stops does not help in anyway!
The line north of Bedford to Corby is meant to be electrified by 2019, but this date keeps being put back. It is widely considered locally that the Thameslink line might be extended north to Northamptonshire, but there seems to be no exact detail, how we will benefit from the electrification or where the new trains to operate this section of track will come from. However if new trains are introduced to Corby, it could make some capacity available with the current trains to add additional stops at Parkway.
But to counter that argument the 125 intercity trains are meant to be withdrawn around that time, and there are no replacements planned(unlike Great Western and Virgin East Coast who are getting replacements for their 125's). So the newer exisiting Meridian trains will probably have to pick up this capacity, benefitting from the freed up capacity of the electric trains running north of Bedford to Corby.
I struggle to see the issues the airport keeps going on about with the railway service to London, with numerous Thameslink services an hour only three stops to London (Harpenden, St Albans and St Pancras). They can't have it all there own way, especially when we are talking about some of the busiest commuters tracks in the country.