Since this photo was taken services through Palmers Green have been halved - but at least the platforms look less bare, thanks to the PG Action Team! (Photo: John Ray/Flickr)
The London Assembly member for Enfield & Haringey is urging Govia Thameslink Railway to restore the frequencies of train services running through Palmers Green to their pre-February 2021 levels sooner than the currently proposed date of May 2022. She is also keen for the train operating company to eventually deliver the full "turn-up-and-go" service (six trains an hour off-peak) that was promised five years ago.
Joanne McCartney made her call for speedier improvements In connection with the recently concluded consultation about Great Northern timetables, saying:
“Understandably, train services were reduced during the recent lockdown. While I welcome proposals to increase the frequency back to four trains an hour from next May, I believe Great Northern could bring this uplift forward to accommodate the gradual increase we are seeing in passenger numbers.
“This is also an opportunity to go further in the long-term. With the new trains now running on the line, having a 'turn up and go' service in place in the future, of six trains per hour, would encourage more Londoners to come back to using public transport and deliver a much better passenger experience.
“This will not only have environmental benefits by reducing reliance on cars, but it will also provide more space for passengers on platforms and in carriages to ensure better social distancing whilst the virus is still in circulation”.
Government cost-cutting
The current service, half-hourly off-peak and roughly four times an hour in the peaks, was in fact introduced only on 22nd February this year as part of a government-ordered cost-cutting package of nationwide rail reductions. In contrast to some other train operators, throughout the height of the pandemic in 2020 Great Northern continued to run in accordance with the timetable introduced in December 2018, providing four trains an hour off-peak (with many cancellations of course, but on Great Northern and its predecessor they've been an inescapable fact of life for years, regardless of pandemics/pingdemics). For many months those trains ran almost empty, but now that people are starting to catch trains again, they are faced with a service that has been slashed by 50 per cent.
The "turn-up-and-go" timetable that the assembly member referred to was proposed as far back as 2016, when Govia ran a consultation about the service pattern it was planning to introduce in May 2018. Closer to that date, however, six trains an hour had been postponed till at least 2019, but the May timetable did promise four trains an hour.
May 2018 brings rail chaos
Unfortunately, the May 2018 improvements on our little part of the network were part of a huge package of service changes affecting an area from Cambridgeshire down to the south coast and hinging on the introduction of many more trains using the Thameslink tunnels between St Pancras International and Blackfriars to link East Anglia with destinations south of London. The changes weren't prepared sufficiently thoroughly and chaos ensued, to the extent that people were losing their jobs because of lateness (though naturally Govia retained its contract and Chris Grayling continued in post as transport secretary).
What we were promised back in 2016 - preserved by PGC
Because of the chaos, services through Palmers Green were cut back to three times an hour (but not evenly spaced) until December 2018, when the May timetable was finally implemented.
The six trains an hour plan - preserved by PGC
As for the six trains an hour timetable proposal, all trace of it was expunged from Govia's website long since, but fortunately a copy of the consultation document has been preserved on the Palmers Green Community servers. It's good news that Joanne McCartney is now reminding Govia of what they once promised (possibly she read some of hints to that end on the PGC Twitter account), but in the post-March 2020 world where the government pays directly for train services the decisions are likely to depend on negotiations between the transport secretary and the chancellor.
Of course, an obvious conclusion from this week's UN climate change report should be that rail services should be increased significantly so that greenhouse-emitting car trips can be cut back urgently. Don't hold your breath.
