At last some good news for the commuters of Mill Hill. After decades of rubbish service from a string of incompetent train operators such as Govia and First Group, the Standard yesterday reported that TFL will be taking over the operation of Londons suburban railways
This means the profit will be ploughed back into the network and services will be run for passengers rather than shareholders. It is likely to mean that the old British Rail pattern of eight trains an hour from Mill Hill Broadway will be restored. The bad news is that this won't happen until 2021 when the current shambolic operators franchise expires. I am sure most Londoners would say that the current system has failed and since TFL took over lines from Silverlink, the number of passengers has increased six fold. Let's hope TFL also look at new lines and services, especially schemes such as the Brent Cross rail scheme, which would massively reduce congestion in our ever more crowded borough.
However desirable this is, it is an unfunded aspiration, and under a future Parliament.
ReplyDeleteTfL will have their hands full taking over South Eastern inner London trains.
There are then a lot of lines down for "2021", including Thameslink inner London services.
Without the huge budgets to improve tracks and stations - something now going on in north-east London into Liverpool Street station - there will be little point in just changing the signs to 'London Overground'.