Where do I start....
You are selective in being blinkered as to what you want to see. It is no improvement for those in Luton and Bedford.
It certainly is an improvement for those in Luton and Bedford if you want to get to Wellingborough or Kettering, as the service will be half hourly or nearly so, compared to the current 14/46 minute gaps northbound and 10/50 southbound (Bedford), or hourly service from each of Luton / Luton Airport Parkway.
For those who want to go further north - like me - the loss of direct trains for most (but not all) of the day is offset, in my opinion, by there being twice as many connection opportunities. I would regard a regular two trains an hour service, via a connection, to the East Midlands a good service.
What is untrue about Bedford losing an hourly direct service to Leicester and Nottingham when the new timetable has you changing trains twice to get to the latter?
You didn’t say that in your post. You said:
If you are up north and want to get home to Bedford via Derby or Nottingham on weekdays then prepare to fester.
Which implies that
every prospective passenger from ‘up north’ wanting to travel to Bedford via Derby or Nottingham at
any time on a weekday requires a ‘fester’. Clearly this is not the case. There are 32 weekday trains from Nottingham to St Pancras that call at Kettering, and all but three of them have a connection to Bedford of 15 minutes or less. Most are 12-13 minutes. The two examples you quoted are two of the three. The third calls at Luton Airport Parkway - agreed not much use for Bedford, but good for Luton.
Followed by:
It sounds like an appalling service for Bedfordians
Which it really isn’t, in the round.
And then:
It would seem EMR don't want Bedford folk on their services at all
Which clearly isn’t the case, otherwise they wouldn’t stop 74 trains there each weekday from May (30% more than now).
What is untrue about Bedford losing an hourly direct service to Leicester and Nottingham when the new timetable has you changing trains twice to get to the latter?
It’s only one change for Nottingham, at Kettering. So that bit is not correct either.
Read what I said again about being much further north than Nottingham so it is not feasible to make the 1950 if coming back from the North East for example.
Yes you did say Lancashire or Yorkshire, but not until your second post. You didn’t mention the North East. Your first post said “up north ... via Derby or Nottingham ”. Which I interpreted to be anywhere north of Derby or Nottingham.
It has never been particularly straightforward to get to Bedford from Lancashire and most of Yorkshire. Which is why not many people do it. However, for those that do, and need to travel late afternoon /evening, it is, of course, feasible to get the 1950 from Nottingham. You just need to make sure you set off at the right time. That might be earlier than you would like, or than you are used to, but it is still definitely feasible.
EMR could easily make the 2011 and 2048 services stop at Bedford and Luton without subjecting those passengers to 45 and 60 minutes festers for a connection late into the evening.
Could they? I don’t know. Perhaps you should write to them and ask. The Train Planning Manager for EMR might even read these pages, so he could be expecting it.
You also said:
Typical response from someone not impacted
And that wasn’t correct either. But I take the view that while it will cause me to have to change trains more often to make the regular journeys I do, there are clearly much wider benefits to many more people, and a lot more winners than losers.
Who are you to judge other people
I don’t judge people I’ve never met, with the exception of senior politicians.
Stick to the subject without being arrogant as though you know what is best for everyone.
But it seems you might do.
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