'Unreliable' rail services to be debated by MPs

Hundreds of people have responded to an MP's survey after he branded the local train services "unreliable".

Mid Bedfordshire Conservative MP Blake Stephenson is leading a parliamentary debate on Tuesday about the performance of Thameslink trains.

"The standards simply haven't been good enough," he said, giving the example of the 07:43 from Flitwick which had a cancellation rate of 28% over 100 days.

A Govia Thameslink Railway spokesperson apologised for the issues, but said it was working with partners to improve.

Stephenson launched an online survey for people using the Thameslink route, which runs from Bedford into London through Luton and St Albans.

A Bedfordshire commuter himself for 10 years, he told the BBC: "I think it will shock nobody who regularly uses the line to discover that while trying to get from the constituency into Parliament this week, I had to give up and drive to a different line after two cancellations and one severe delay.

"People pay a lot of money to travel by train and to receive such a poor level of service simply isn't good enough."

His office said that over the last year, the cancellation score for Govia Thameslink was 5.4%, compared with a national average of 4.0%.

The BBC spoke to a number of rail users in Luton about their Thameslink experiences.

Howard Malcolm, 65, uses the train five days a week for work, and said services were "about 75% reliable".

"I think it could do with a vastly improved service," he said.

"I work in Knightsbridge so I go to London St Pancras.

"Coming home in the evening, I try to pick up the 20:36 Thameslink from St Pancras. That train is predominantly cancelled a lot, or running late.

"I end up taking the East Midlands train from upstairs, which is mostly more reliable.

"The trains should run on time, they need to increase the level of reliability, particularly in the evenings," he said.

Bartly James Graham, 36, said: "Thameslink is one of the better companies train-wise."

He often uses the line between Bedford and Brighton.

"This morning in Kings Cross, there were multiple delays and cancellations with LNER, but Thameslink is always spot on time.

"They are by far one of better firms," he added.

Aliyah, 23, disagreed and said the Thameslink trains were "a bit unreliable, to be honest".

"On Sunday I couldn't get any train to work, so I had to get a bus. Usually they're quite late or they just get cancelled quite often from Luton," she said.

She also uses the trains to get to university and into London, and experienced disruption "quite often, usually when there's works on the line".

She believed the services should be "regulated better, so it doesn't impact people's journeys".

Stephenson said: "Delayed and cancelled trains aren't just frustrating, they can cause stress and anxiety to people trying to get to work and appointments on time, and it's damaging our economy."

In response, a spokesperson for Thameslink said: "Reliability has been better since the start of the year but our service has still been affected by external events, such as named storms, people trespassing on the track and fatalities.

"Other issues such as signal failures, power and track issues, lay outside our direct control, but we work closely with Network Rail to improve their reliability.

"Over the Christmas break, Network Rail replaced most of the rails on the Thameslink route across central London and they have started nine weekends of engineering work to upgrade the overhead power lines."

It added seasonal sickness and annual leave had caused difficulties with driver availability but since the start of the year cancellations, responsible for by Thameslink, had fallen by two-thirds.

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