This morning’s news of the franchise fiasco at the Department of Transport won’t have come as much of a surprise to King’s Sutton’s downtrodden rail commuters. After all, this is the same inept government department that didn’t know (or didn’t care) that Chiltern Railways was completely ignoring its supposed obligation under the Passenger Service Requirement to provide services at regular intervals to stations like ours.
In late August, shortly before she was shuffled out of her job at the Department of Transport, former minister Justine Greening wrote in response to a query from local MP Andrea Leadsom: “I can confirm that the level of service in the December 2012 timetable fully meets the requirements of the contracted [Passenger Service Requirement]...” (Around the same time, she was also confirming to an interviewer on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that all bidders in the West Coast Mainline franchise debacle had “bought into” the "fair and well-established process".)
New timetable now in force
In May and July this year, we published articles warning of Chiltern Railways’ proposed December 2012 timetable and revealing how it breached the rules governing the company’s franchise. (See Winter Timetable Shocker for King’s Sutton Train Users and King’s Sutton Residents Vow to Carry On Fighting for Local Station.) Now, Chiltern has quietly published a new timetable that differs slightly from its original proposal:
Direct Peak Time Services to Bicester North, High Wycombe, London, etc.
|
Winter 2012 |
Summer 2012 |
Winter 2011 |
| 05:29 | 05:29 | |
| 06:08 | 06:18 | 06:16 |
| 07:31 | ||
| 08:31 | 08:06 | 08:05 |
| 09:10 | 09:52 | 09:51 |
All other morning peak time southbound services require travel to Banbury.
Direct Peak Time Services From Bicester North, High Wycombe, London, etc
|
Winter 2012 |
Summer 2012 |
Winter 2011 |
| 19:20 | 18:13 | 18:13 |
All other evening peak time services require travel to Banbury then connection with a southbound service stopping at King’s Sutton.
These revised train times may enable King’s Sutton residents working in Bicester to get there in time for work without having to catch a train at 05:49. London workers may also benefit from an extra 19 minutes in bed. However, King’s Sutton commuters remain less than impressed.
George Martin, who relies on Chiltern Railways to get to his work in west Middlesex, comments: “From mid-December, the new timetable means I will need to spend an extra 16 minutes every day travelling to and from work. Speaking for myself, I suppose I can learn to live with that, but the general consensus amongst my fellow commuters is that quite a few of them will be forced to use Bicester or Banbury instead of King’s Sutton. And, of course, if people end up drifting off to those other stations, it will enable Chiltern to keep on claiming our passenger numbers will stay too low to justify further investment at King’s Sutton. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Support from local authorities
Meanwhile, hope for the future of King’s Sutton station has not run out entirely. Northamptonshire County Council (which Chiltern Railways didn’t bother to consult about its December 2012 timetable proposals) has produced a new draft Rail Strategy that includes the station at King’s Sutton. The draft strategy sets out the council’s aspirations for future timetables and makes clear its support for the extension of the station’s platforms. According to the village’s county councillor Ken Melling, “this strategy document will form the basis of future policy, including providing funds to support it as necessary.”