7,500 signatures! Please get those consultation responses in NOW!

We have hit another major landmark, 7,500 signatures online. Please do keep sharing – SaveOurTrains.co.uk – especially on a variety of social media (twitter, Instagram, tumblr…) and by email. However, NOW is the time to send in proper consultation responses. The deadline is Wednesday (11th) Please use your own experience and your own words. Guidance can be found at www.facebook.com/groups/EastMidlandsPassengers/470963946620795/ Consultation responses can be given by emailing EastMidlandsFranchise2017@dft.gsi.gov.uk (perhaps using their PDF - www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/consultation_response_form_data/file/611/east-midlands-consultation-response-form.pdf). Key points: - Oppose the “proposed approach” (question 4). Making an artificial split of services between the Corby-London “high capacity electric commuter service” and Intercity services that will not stop between London and Kettering does not match reality or people’s travel needs. Commuters travel from further than Corby into London, and to places other than London. All of Luton, Bedford, Wellingborough, Corby, Oakham and Melton Mowbray should keep InterCity trains. (Questions 4&5) As well as to/from London, additional seats are needed into Leicester from Luton/Bedford/Wellingborough/Kettering in the morning, and more back in the evenings. More seats are needed departing from Sheffield in the late afternoon/early evening on the Norwich/Liverpool service. (Question 6) Wheelchair spaces are a legally required facility that cannot be de-prioritised. After them, next most important is the ability to reserve seats remotely, including for season ticket holders to be able to reserve one seat in each direction every day online/by telephone. (questions 7 & 8). There should be more carriages on InterCity trains to/from London (rather than all extra carriages being on the “electric commuter services” to/from Corby), more frequent services between Luton/Bedford/Wellingborough/ Kettering and Leicester/East Midlands Parkway/Derby and more carriages on Liverpool/Norwich trains leaving Sheffield in the late afternoon/early evening. (questions 9 and 10) For airports (question 14) - to East Midlands Parkway: there should be hourly through trains from Luton (or Luton Airport Pwy)/Bedford/W'boro. Through trains hourly from Nottingham/Beeston/Loughborough/Leicester/Market Harborough/Kettering/W'boro/Bedford direct to Luton Airport Parkway should be retained. Liverpool-Norwich services should NOT be split, either at Nottingham or Sheffield (questions 15 &17). Regular through trains are vital for passengers. The franchisee should be required, in times of disruption (if any train movements on the route are possible) to run at least one train per hour in each direction on the following calling pattern: StPancras-Bedford-Wellingborough-Kettering-Market Harborough-Leicester- East Midlands Pwy-Long Eaton-Derby-Chesterfield-Sheffield, and at least one train Leicester-Loughborough-East Midlands Pwy-Beeston-Nottingham, or the closest approximation possible (assuming Thameslink can run StPancras-Bedford, to call at Luton AirportPwy). It should not be acceptable for the service between any pair of these stations to drop below one train per hour, even in disruption (question 20) Improving access requires minimising the need for passengers to change trains. Luton and Market Harborough stations urgently require full accessibility, and Beeston requires improvements. Reliability of station lifts needs improving. Wheelchair users frequently have an hour added to their journey when a lift fails. Lift maintenance contracts should include a service level agreement that the number of call-backs or outages due to equipment failure should not exceed three call-backs per year, per lift. Scheduled preventative maintenance per month should be not less than three hours per lift, to be undertaken between 10am and 4pm or between 10pm and 6am. Emergency call-backs should result in attendance within 30 minutes in all cases. Lift contractors should be required to maintain an inventory of relevant parts to deal with 90% of failures at locations within 150 miles of the relevant lift. Where station lifts have failed, the default method of enabling access, if there is no alternative level access to the same platform, should be by re-platforming of trains (regardless of whether the station is operated by another operator or by the franchisee), with taxis only being used where crossovers to enable re-platforming are not in place (question 21). As for Question 30: An acceptable service on the mainline would have each hour at least two trains mak¬ing the journey Bedford-London (and vice versa) in less than 40 minutes, at least two Welling¬borough-London (and vice versa) in less than 55 minutes, at least two Kettering-Lon¬don (and vice versa) in less than 65 minutes, at least two Market Harborough-London (and vice versa) in less than 75 minutes, at least two Leicester-London in less than 70 minutes, at least two doing Loughborough-London in 100 minutes or less, at least two doing East Mid¬lands Parkway-Lon¬don in less than 110 minutes, at least one doing Beeston-London in less than 115 minutes, at least one doing Nottingham-London 100 minutes or less (and a second in less than 120 minutes), at least one doing Long Eaton-London in less than 120 minutes, at least two doing Derby-London in less than 130 minutes, at least one doing Chesterfield-London in less than 115 minutes and at least one doing Sheffield-London in less than 125 minutes (and a second in less than 150 minutes). The franchisee should be required to work with other stakeholders towards providing a second fast line platform at Bedford, in addition to the existing northbound platform. Such a platform could cut journey times to London by up to 5 minutes for trains stopping at Bedford. Electrification for the whole route London-Nottingham and London-Sheffield via Derby is important. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------