What is happening?
As you may know, London Northwestern Railway is investing heavily in a brand new fleet of modern electric trains, which will very soon replace our ageing Class 319 fleet.
Before the new trains come into service, two of our Class 319 trains will be withdrawn from November, which means that passengers travelling between Hertfordshire and London Euston will regrettably experience shorter and busier trains for a short period of time before our new Class 730s are able to be brought into service.
For a number of reasons, including significant build delays caused by the pandemic and the complexities of introducing a new train fleet, it has not been possible to bring the Class 730s in as quickly as we would like. The Class 319s, which were due to be withdrawn before the summer, are increasingly unreliable and regularly cause short-notice service cancellations.
We are currently in the final stages of our work to introduce the Class 730s as a matter of priority, which will add much-needed capacity and significantly improve journeys on the route.
During this short period of time before our new trains have entered service, we advise customers to consider traveling at quieter times of the day outside of the morning or evening peak if possible. Customers can use our “How busy is my train?” tool on our website to help plan their journey.
We apologise that reliability and crowding on this part of our network has been a problem in recent months and we thank you for your patience while we focus on resolving these issues.