Luton Borough Council has called on the Department for Transport to introduce four trains per hour between London Luton Airport (LLA) and central London.
The council said this reflects recommendations made in the Shaw Report (RAIL 797), which asked for ‘greater local responsiveness’.
It said: “DfT is currently preparing for the tendering process for the new East Midlands Trains franchise, which is due to begin in 2018. LLA is currently served by just one fast train per hour and is the only major London airport without a dedicated express service.”
The council said that the business case for securing more fast trains on the EMT franchise estimates that it would be worth £26.5 million per year for Luton. It claims that four fast trains per hour would double the number of people travelling to the airport by public transport to more than 30%. LLA is spending £50m to increase capacity 50% by 2018.
Robin Porter, LBC’s director of commercial and transformation services, has said that without the increase LLA will be at a “significant commercial disadvantage in comparison to the other London airports”.
London Luton Airport Chief Executive Nick Barton said: “The Shaw Report makes clear that customers must be at the heart of the decision-making process within the rail industry. Committing to four fast trains per hour to Luton Airport Parkway through the new EMT franchise agreement would fit exactly in line with this ambition.”
Philip Walker - 30/03/2016 13:15
There are already 4 fast trains an hour between London and Luton Airport - the Thameslink ones. Although these call at Harpenden, St Albans and W Hampstead, they continue onto the Thameslink core bringing passengers to more central London destinations. The purpose of Midland Main Line (MML) Luton Airport stops would surely be to link MML destinations, rather than London, to the airport. Putting extra stops on MML expresses would slow those trains down for the majority of their passengers, hardly customer-focussed. The large cities of Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield surely need fast limited stop express services (first stop Leicester?), but twice-hourly frequencies to those cities mean one an hour can be fast and the other can stop more, such as at Luton Airport Parkway which could also serve as a railhead for north of London home counties for journeys to the E Midlands etc. However Govia Thameslink Railway wants to close the ticket office, so they obviously don't rate the importance of this station very highly.