Discover Hertford Online Forum

It seems like the proposed rail replacement between Watton and Stevenage drew attention away from the fact that they were getting rid of all the fastest journeys on the Hertford Loop.

means we are getting more for our money. We get more time on the trains!

the national rail planner has a big ! next to it saying train times are not currently known post may 20th.

I noticed there's a weird 5 minute delay at FPK on the train to HAT so i'm wondering if they just don't have a clue atm

On the app it says they don't know how engineering work is going to affect the timetable but otherwise seems to be final (though I agree they don't have a clue...!)

This was response from GTR (I'm going to reply as they didn't mention the misleading consultation):

Thank you for getting in touch regarding services from May 2018.

I was sorry to hear that you're unhappy with the forthcoming timetable changes in relation to services between Hertford North and London.
With passenger numbers doubling in 16 years, the allocated stop times at many stations are simply too short to reasonably account for those getting off and on. So at 75 stations trains will stop for longer

We have completely re-written the timetable to add in extra time at stations now needed for additional passengers to board. We've also reviewed all the intermediate running times between stations to make sure our timetable reflects reality. We know this sometimes means journeys are timetabled to take slightly longer in some circumstances but passengers will be able to rely on them.

In addition, many services currently have very short turnaround times at destination stations, so the slightest delay on the route means they don't start their return journey on time and the delay multiplies - the new timetable has increased turnaround times to help

We have done our best to produce a timetable that meets the needs of the majority of people who travel with us, but inevitably, given the hundreds of thousands of passengers who travel with us daily, some people will regrettably be disappointed by aspects of the timetable change.

We do realise this information will be largely disappointing, but we hope it can at least be of some use. Thank you once more for bringing your concerns to our attention.

So not addressing the issue at all. Journey times have not increased on the Hertford loop because timetables have changed to reflect reality, they've increased because they've added more stops to the journeys.

It's bare faced cheek that they're not even able to admit that they've altered the service in this way.

The only one they've not updated to "reflect reality" is the running time between old street and moorgate. I wonder why that could be...

This is terrible, we’ve been given a worse service. No one I’ve spoken thinks that this is an improvement to the old. We will no doubt be paying more for these so called improvements. The fact they didn’t even consider saving at least one of the fast trains shows what they think of this branch. The Welwyn line looks to have profited. The only option left is to write and complain.

manickg wrote:This is terrible, we’ve been given a worse service. No one I’ve spoken thinks that this is an improvement to the old. We will no doubt be paying more for these so called improvements. The fact they didn’t even consider saving at least one of the fast trains shows what they think of this branch. The Welwyn line looks to have profited. The only option left is to write and complain.

Its nothing short of a disgrace that a small village service like Welwyn North (20 mins to KX on direct) gets a massively better service than Hertford. Just can't work out why there isn't one train an hour that is Cuffley and Finsbury Park only before reverting to stopping. Frankly everyone needs to raise it with MP.

monkeyman1974 wrote:Its nothing short of a disgrace that a small village service like Welwyn North (20 mins to KX on direct) gets a massively better service than Hertford. Just can't work out why there isn't one train an hour that is Cuffley and Finsbury Park only before reverting to stopping. Frankly everyone needs to raise it with MP.

Even more surprising when you consider that Hertford is in the rare position of having a choice between two TOCs.