London Luton Airport and partners call on Government for Express... - London Luton Airport
Seems like LTN are calling out for a new four trains an hour express service between Luton Parkway and St Pancras, as part of the East Midlands Trains new franchise...
I wish the airport good luck getting that, and wonder exactly how that will be implemented...(?)
I am a East Midlands Trains user from Northamptonshire to St Pancras, and the service is already creaking at the seams... Users from Wellingborough and Kettering have been crying out for the service to be increased to three trains an hour for years, with no luck. Ironically Bedford 12 miles down the line gets 6-8 trains an hour and they all want to pile on to the East Midlands Trains!
A new franchise is due to be announced and commence late next year and there is currently no plans for any new rolling stock to be added, and highly doubt any new trains can be sourced in that short time for a new franchise to commence.
At present I find nearly all trains departing St Pancras towards the East Midlands are chocker and you have to be ready to board the train 15-20 mins before departure to get a seat.
Coming south it is usually standing room only when trains depart Wellingborough, and if not definitely by the time the train Bedford.
East Midlands trains already operates some of the slowest Intercity trains, in comparison to other long distance operators, and highly doubt the users from Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby, will be happy for an extra stop be added to these routes to please Luton Airport, which usually run non-stop from Leicester to London.
The service could easily be increased to half hourly, by dropping the hourly Corby train that calls at Luton and change this to Parkway.
I don't understand the need for this new express service when Parkway already boasts more than eight trains an hour and many of these Thameslink services only call at Harpenden and St Albans with a train journey of 32 mins!
This is compariable with the Gatwick Express, where many of these no-longer run non-stop to Victoria, and call at places like Clapham Junction and East Croydon.
Also the Stansted Express takes around 50 minutes from Liverpool Street.