In accordance with her Disclosable Pecuniary Interest made at the commencement of the meeting, Councillor S-J Potter withdrew from the meeting for the duration of this item.
An amended motion was tabled at the meeting.
After a full debate, it was moved, seconded and RESOLVED:
That this Council notes with increasing dismay the complete chaos and confusion caused to rail commuters by the failure to plan for, or implement properly, the new rail timetable.
Stevenage railway station is crucial to the town and local economy, with nearly 5m visits per year. By Govia Thameslink Railways (GTR’s) own admission, nearly 20% of services have been cancelled since the new timetable came into effect. No improvement has been achieved since the start of this episode, for example, for peak trains to London on Monday, 38% of trains were late or cancelled.
The terrible impact this has had on people’s well-being, jobs, home life and child care/career arrangements cannot be overestimated. Nor can the impact on the frontline staff on our railways who have had to deal with the brunt of commuters confusion and stress when they bear no responsibility for the management failure that has caused them.
We now have yet another new timetable (15 July), across the GTR & Northern services but with no reassurance that this will resolve the issues we have been enduring.
We call on our MP, the Rail Operating companies, Network Rail and the Secretary of State for Transport to meet immediately and take urgent steps to resolve this rail crisis.