Chiltern Railways timetable changes from May 2011

 

Chiltern Railways has one station within Ealing (Northolt Park) and one close by (Sudbury Hill Harrow) which serves a considerable number of people within our borough. The company is proposing to make major and comprehensive changes in the scheduled  timetable due to come into effect on 22 May this year.

 

The frequency and number of services from Northolt Park would appear to be much the same but there have been significant changes for that from and to Sudbury Hill Harrow (and also for its little sister station at Sudbury and Harrow Road). The services from Sudbury Hill Harrow  to Marylebone have been increased from 14 to 17 trains a day with the latest departure to Marylebone now at 20:54. The services from Marylebone to Sudbury Hill remain the same in number (14) and the last train out from Marylebone is now 20:40. but the flip side is that the morning service which leaves at 8:00 has been axed. 

 

A bit of good news for commuters using the very limited services from Sudbury & Harrow Road is that there will now be four trains up to Marylebone in the morning and five back in the evening. Also most of the park hour trains to these stations will be stopping at all stations out to and from West Ruislip, something which has been proposed by EPTUG when there were discussions about a local Metro service.

 

 Unfortunately, despite pressure from EPTUG, there will still be no weekend services at either of the Sudbury Stations.

 

As travellers on Chiltern Railways will be aware, the company is the process of making a major extension to its service by rebuilding and extending the track to Oxford to provide an alternative fast link to London. In order to do this there are going to be major restrictions to weekend services so that major construction work can be done. There have been delays, largely due to its initial contractor, Jarvis, going into receivership last year. This has disrupted their schedule, and the major works are now proposed to be in August.