Commuters suffer

nwln@inuk.co.uk
20 July 2005

Frustrated commuters have seen their journey times soar since two train stations were closed.

Chiltern Railways services have been suspended indefinitely from both Sudbury and Harrow Road and Sudbury Hill Harrow stations.

Passengers for central London are being forced to use the Piccadilly Line from either Sudbury Hill or Sudbury Town instead.

Kate Busch-Petersen, 28, of Brewery Close, Sudbury, works as a web developer in Oxford Circus.

She said: "It took me 40 minutes to get to work from Sudbury and Harrow Road, now it takes an hour and ten minutes. That is an extra hour a day travelling."

Chiltern Railways decided to close the two Sudbury stations because it claims services were too busy after the Gerrards Cross tunnel collapse.

It is now running longer trains which cannot stop at the Sudbury stations because they have short platforms.

Other train companies throughout the country are able to cope with this problem by only opening the doors on the front carriages. But Chiltern Railways trains do not have 'selective door opening', it is only possible to open all the doors, or none at all.

Miss Busch-Petersen said: "This is ridiculous, it ranks up there with trains being cancelled because of leaves on the track. Trains where the driver cannot control the doors, what a step backwards."

A Chiltern spokesman said: "We are very sorry to all our passengers at these stations for the obvious inconvenience it will cause."

For the full story see this week's Sudbury Times

charlie.chute@archant.co.uk