AbFly update

[Richard Haywood]

Coronavirus postpones 30th March Open Meeting
With the current situation with the coronavirus we have decided to postpone our next Open Meeting which was to be held on Monday 30th March.  Once we have more news on this we will let you know. A future date for your diary is that our next public meeting is scheduled for Monday 2nd November.

Hertfordshire County Council’s Rail Strategy
Abfly has submitted its response on this. We say this latest version is much better than the previous Strategy four years ago (which suggested a guided busway for the Abbey Line). We welcome the many proposals for improving conditions for rail users, such as more frequent services on the Abbey Line, better information about services (particularly during disruptions) and enhanced interchange (notably at Watford Junction). We urge more specific proposals to improve public safety and a closer working relationship with rail user groups such as Abfly.  

Restoring Beeching railway cuts
The Department for Transport has recently announced funds for restoring rail services affected by “Beeching” cuts. Hertfordshire County Council is coordinating a bid for the passing loop on the Abbey Line, which has gained the support of our two new MPs (Daisy Cooper and Dean Russell) and, of course, Abfly. Decisions are expected later this year.

Train connections at Watford Junction
We have received a number of complaints about the timetable changes which mean that, in particular, the first early morning Abbey Line train arrives at Watford Junction too late to make a timely connection with the onward services to Euston.We have taken this up with London Northwestern and asked them to consider either running the earliest Abbey Line service a few minutes earlier or even consider running it through to Euston (in place of the current 06:34 which starts at Watford Junction’s platform 10).