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Virgin Trains skip Watford Junction, frustrating residents

4:38pm Tuesday 6th January 2009


Residents have been left frustrated by what they see as a “ridiculous” decision to stop Watford's direct rail link to Manchester.

Virgin Trains' new timetable, which was introduced last month, means passengers are unable to board the direct train from London Euston to Manchester.

Instead, they have been asked to take a train to Milton Keynes where they can board the usual Virgin service.

Pensioner Brian Levy, of The Grove, in Radlett, regularly travels to Manchester with his wife Josephine to visit her family.

He said: “We've now got to stand around and add more than half an hour to our journey. We're both old age pensioners and don't particulalry fancy standing about in Winter. It's ridiculous. There is absolutely no point to it and it really shows total contempt for their customers.”

He added: “I also feel really sorry for the 20 or 30 taxis that were at Watford Junction to pick up passengers from that train. They are really going to feel the pinch.”

Virgin Trains representative Jim Rowe, said the changes to the timetable were made in order to benefit the most passengers and cut down the travel time from London Euston to Manchester.

He said Watford had not shown an increase in passengers going to Manchester and that although a minority would lose out, the majority of passengers, and the Department for Transport, welcomed the changes.


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Your Say YourWatford

Romo, Watford says...
5:15pm Tue 6 Jan 09

At least the train to Milton Keynes is heading in the right direction. If you want to go somewhere like Leeds or Newcastle, you have to go south into London and then travel north right past Watford.

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Roy Stockdill, says...
5:26pm Tue 6 Jan 09

Romo wrote:
At least the train to Milton Keynes is heading in the right direction. If you want to go somewhere like Leeds or Newcastle, you have to go south into London and then travel north right past Watford.
Actually, the last time I went to Leeds in December I was able to catch a fast Virgin train to Birmingham New Street direct from the Junction and another one from there to Leeds. Are you saying that it is no longer possible to catch a fast train from Watford to Birmingham, either? I shall have to check out the new timetables, for I go up to Leeds and/Bradford several times a year and have always gone via Manchester or Birmingham, since it costs more to go through London and out again. What with this and the fares increases, the train companies seem determined to stop people from using their services exactly at a time when they should be encouraging more and more to use them!

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Andrew1963, Watford says...
9:46pm Tue 6 Jan 09

There are still fast Virgin train services to Birmingham. in fact the train to Birmingham International is so fast it makes Birmingham Airport the nearest (by time) by public transport from Watford. The credit crunch will see Virgin return to stopping trains at Watford Junction. Ticket sales between Watford Jct and Manchester was in the top 30 of all Virgin routes before the recent changes. With the downturn they will need to recapture the M25 effect, where people from the northern home counties were prepared to drive to Watford to get the train. They will not want to travel into central London to get the train north.

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Paradise Watford, says...
1:16pm Wed 7 Jan 09

Wouldn't it be nice to have a proper, integrated public transport system again? Where you can catch a bus and train to anywhere in the country for a reasonable price.

Those where the days but saddly now decisions are made not in the interest of the public but of cutting costs and maximising profits regardless

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TooFar, Garston says...
7:04pm Wed 7 Jan 09

I looked forward to the new timetable but now I feel betrayed. There is only one train per day and that runs very early in the morning. I feel betrayed because of the hassle and disruption we have endured in the past few years with a promise of a better experience in the future.
Changing trains at MK for anyone with less than perfect health is a serious concern. Carting week-end bags on and off the train is not easy. In these cold days there is no waiting room on the platform which Virgin use.
I hope Virgin are prepared to give a little bit by having an evening train stop at Watford. It has always seemed a well-use stop to me.

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watfordkev, Watford says...
10:38am Thu 8 Jan 09

I agree about the integrated service. In what I would call the good old days, your Watford-Euston ticket was good for trains from Manchester etc that stopped on the other platform - particularly useful when there were delays on the Brum/MK line. Now you get Virgin's bouncers stopping you getting on their trains. Very very annoying.

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metz, watford says...
2:06pm Thu 8 Jan 09

I am relly mad with virgin about this. Why are trains from the NorthWest not stopping at Watford anymore, it's not only Manchester it's Preston and Lancaster too. My parents are elderly and mum is in a wheelchair they rely on trains to come and see their grandchildren. They live in Cumbria and used to be able to board a train at Lancaster and get off at Watford, meaning only the one change at Lancaster. Now they either have to go into London and come back out again or change at Milton Keynes and wait for a connection. Both ways add extra time to the journey and in the winter it's very cold sitting in a wheelchair hoping your train will turn up! As usual train companies are thinking about money they make from business users and forget the rest of us.

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John Howard Norfolk, Tiverton, Devon (formerly Oxhey Village) says...
3:34pm Thu 8 Jan 09

The Manchester services also connect with the Railair coaches to Heathrow outside Watford Junction so what's the effect there?

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shalvey, Watford says...
11:42pm Thu 8 Jan 09

John Howard Norfolk wrote:
The Manchester services also connect with the Railair coaches to Heathrow outside Watford Junction so what's the effect there?
Those coaches stopped running last year! Another nail in the coffin for integrated transport!

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