Hemel Hempstead MP Sir Mike Penning joined other local MPs to meet with West Midlands Trains to express constituents’ anger at the dismal failure of London Northwestern service recently.

Local commuters, who pay a high price for their season ticket, have had to endure a high number of cancellations, late trains and overcrowding. Some of these issues have been addressed with either permanent or temporary solutions, but many remain.

The meeting took place just a day after the Secretary of State for Transport told West Midlands Trains that it needs to spend an additional £20 million to improve performance on its services.

Sir Mike said:
“We had a pretty frank discussion and the company has taken on board all of our complaints. We need a reliable, efficient and modern rail service in and out of London. Local commuters pay a large proportion of their salaries on rail travel and they need to be able to be confident they can get to work on time and get home again back to their families.”

In response West Midlands Trains, who operate the London Northwestern service, have written a letter to the MPs outlining the measures they are putting in place to fix the problems.