Andrew Dismore

Dear Editor

Hendon’s Conservative MP (letters 24/7/14) attempts to put a positive spin on Govia taking over the Thameslink line, but it will be years before any difference is likely to be seen in the frequency and capacity  of the service.

Govia are not going to review the timetable before 2018, so there is no prospect of any increased frequency before then.

It is correct that new trains will be introduced between  2016 to 2018, and they will hopefully  be more reliable than the older trains.  However additional capacity  on these trains may  not mean that many more seats will be available  from Mill Hill or Hendon. The claim made by Hendon’s Conservative MP of extra seats is due to the move to 12 car from 8 car trains (once the new trains come into service), but these are for the whole of the Bedford line, so it depends how many seats are already taken by the time the trains get to Mill Hill and Hendon.

Step free access at Mill Hill is not in the franchise and Govia have no plans to install this. To do so, would be dependent on funding from “partners”. It is not in the Conservative led Government’s new programme for step free access announced in May this year, so it is not going to happen in the foreseeable future.

Whilst  there will be free wifi at Mill Hill and Hendon (presumably to  use while you are waiting for a train to turn up); and there will have staff on the station these ‘improvements’ hardly make up for the current  problems of reliability and overcrowding, which commuters would far prefer to wifi!

yours sincerely,

Andrew Dismore

Labour Parliamentary candidate  for Hendon

London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden