Yesterday in Parliament Anne Main met with rail minister, Jo Johnson for an update on Thameslink services from St Albans. The St Albans MP shared the concerns of many of her constituents about the possible delays that could be caused by further planned timetable changes in December.

Mrs Main emphasised the level of frustration felt by passengers over the weeks of disruption following the introduction of the May timetable to the Minister and pushed him for reassurances that this would not be repeated in December.

‘The Minister needs to know that a repeat of the May chaos is totally unacceptable. It is good that additional trains will be added into the service and that is much needed – but Thameslink must be able to deliver those changes without major disruption’, said Mrs Main.

Thameslink have announced that the full roll out of additional services will come in December of this year. They are adding an additional 200 services across the line which will complete the planned upgrades that were due in May.

This change will see additional services for St Albans commuters going in and out of London at peak times.

After the meeting Anne said, ‘Thameslink must get this right in December. No ifs, no buts. The timetable rollout in May was a complete shambles and the misery it caused was enormous. It is good that the service has improved a lot but for the price St Albans commuters pay it needs to be even better.

‘The Minister gave assurances that Thameslink will be held accountable and he knows there will be big pressure from MP’s, like me who are served by the Thameslink service, for the franchise to be removed if they have a repeat of what happened in May.’