?Passengers travelling on Monday night from Liverpool Street to Billericay, Wickford, Rayleigh, Hockley, Rochford or Southend got a nasty shock when they found all night time through services had been cancelled and will continue to be affected for about 6 months.
Our parliamentary candidate Ron Tindall writes:
“A number of passengers contacted me to express their surprise that no trains were running Monday to Thursday after 9:35 PM up to November this year. Passengers face a bus ride from Shenfield to Wickford via Billericay lengthening their journey by more than half. The engineering work is scheduled to last for 6 months while the Network Rail renew the overhead wires and the posts that support them. The only exceptions will be for major sporting events at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. Just to cap it all passengers arriving at Wickford on shuttle buses on Monday night found the whole area around the station was affected by roadworks!”
Many passengers will accept? maintenance work has to be done before it becomes unsafe, but but the failure to adequately warn passengers in advance of such a big schedule change is very disappointing. After a long day at the office the last thing you want is an extra half hour bus ride plus delays at every inter-change”.
Unbelievable it is. After months of no weekend service as well (unless you want to get a bus to Newbury Park) I’ve asked for a refund or discount on my rather expensive season ticket.
Lets see how that goes.