Press release -
Additional carriages for busy commuter services at Apsley and Kings Langley
Additional carriages will be reallocated onto busy commuter services at Apsley and Kings Langley from next week, following feedback from rail passengers.
The biggest timetable shake-up in over 10 years has been good news for many London Northwestern Railway passengers with direct services to more destinations, faster journeys on many routes and more seats to and from London everyday. Further changes to be introduced from Monday 8 July will see additional carriages allocated onto some of the busiest peak time services.
The train operator will be providing a twelve carriage train to operate the 0800 service from Apsley and 0803 service from Kings Langley (0710 departure from Northampton to London Euston).
London Northwestern Railway will be providing the additional carriages by reallocating a train from other services, based on passenger counts and demand elsewhere on the West Coast Mainline.*
To give passengers a better spread of services in the evening peak, there will be a new stop at Kings Langley on the 1650 departure from London Euston. This will come with the removal of the 1716 stop at Apsley from this service. The 1654 service from London Euston will continue to call at Apsley at 1720 as at present.
In addition to these changes, from Monday 15 July, two additional evening peak time services will operate from Watford Junction to London Euston. These trains will depart at 1644 and 1743.
These new services will help manage the flow of passengers through the station during the evening peak. The trains will also offer additional capacity for passengers travelling back to London from nearby attractions such as Warner Brothers Studios.
Jonny Wiseman, customer experience director for London Northwestern Railway, said: “We acknowledge that the experience for our regular commuters at Apsley and Kings Langley has not been up to the standard that it should have been over the past few weeks. While we have been adjusting to our new timetable, we have been taking on board all passenger feedback and assessing how trains have been impacted – for better and for worse.
“In response to this feedback, we didn’t want to make any rushed decisions that may have had unintended consequences elsewhere on the network, so we have spent a number of weeks assessing what could be done to reallocate additional carriages to the 0800 and 0803 departures from Apsley and Kings Langley respectively. We now have a solution we believe will deliver consistent performance and benefit passengers on some of our busiest morning services.
“We want to thank all our passengers for their patience while the new timetable has been bedding in and we will continue to look at making further refinements to improve our timetable going forward.”
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For further information on this release, call our press office on 03300 955150 or email press.office@wmtrains.co.uk
Notes to editors
*The following changes will be made to train formations to accommodate additional carriages on some of the busiest London Northwestern Railway commuter services to and from Apsley and Kings Langley:
- 0414 Northampton to London Euston: 4 carriages (previously 8 carriages)
- 0634 Watford Junction to London Euston: 4 carriages (previously 8 carriages)
- 0710 Northampton to London Euston: 12 carriages (previously 8 carriages)
- 0712 Euston to Tring: 8 carriages (previously 12 carriages)
- 0805 Tring to Euston: 8 carriages (previously 12 carriages)
- 0834 Euston to Tring: 12 carriages (previously 8 carriages)
- 0926 Tring to Euston: 12 carriages (previously 8 carriages)
About West Midlands Trains
West Midlands Trains operates both West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway services.
- London Northwestern Railway services operate between Liverpool and Birmingham, and on the West Coast mainline to and from London Euston.
- West Midlands Railway services operate to destinations across the West Midlands via Birmingham New Street.
For more information on these services visit westmidlandsrailway.co.uk or londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk
The West Midlands Trains franchise started on 10 December 2017 and will run until 2025/26.
West Midlands Trains operates 1,300 services a day, manages 150 stations and provides over 70 million passenger journeys a year. Over the course of the franchise, West Midlands Trains will be investing £1 billion into the rail network to deliver new trains, improved routes and station upgrades. This will include 400 new train carriages across the network and space for an extra 85,000 passengers into Birmingham and London at peak times.
The franchise is a joint venture between Abellio (70.1% share) and East Japan Railway Company / Mitsui & Co., Ltd (29.9% share in a 50:50 split). Abellio is the international passenger transport subsidiary of the Dutch national railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen. In the UK, Abelllio operates ScotRail and Greater Anglia train services, Merseyrail services in a joint venture with Serco and buses through Abellio London. For more information visit www.abellio.com
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