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News Central Line - Service Reductions from January 2020
15 November 2019 Central Line - Service Reductions from January 2020
Transport
for London (TfL) has announced changes (see the below email) to the Central Line service,
which for our town will mean fewer Loughton-Epping peak hour
services - more on the District Council website.
TfL
will take some trains out of service, a few at a time, to replace
life-expired motors (meaning fewer future defective trains) and will
make adaptations to provide more space for wheelchair users, as well as
improving audio and visual passenger information. We understand that
this work will take 'a number of years'.
Morning and evening
peak services at Debden, Theydon Bois and Epping stations will be
reduced (at Debden from 11 trains per hour to 9 and at Epping
from 10 trains down to 8 per hour).
TfL did not do any prior
consultations on these changes, which will affect many people. Peak
time Loughton commuters may benefit from more trains starting at
Loughton, but Debden commuters will have to choose between overcrowded
journeys straight through, or changing trains at Loughton in the hope
of getting seats.
Travelling on the Central Line can be
frustrating and uncomfortable, and new trains are many years away. TfL
presumably needs to do this work, but we question why these changes
only impact our end of the line, and how TfL decided on this plan?
There
will also be changes adversely affecting residents using the services
between Woodford and Hainault, which LRA Cllr Chris Pond raised with
senior Conservatives at Epping Forest District Council in spring 2019,
when he first heard of some of them, but nothing was done.
15 November 2019