London Northwestern Railway: First Class to be removed from all …
A further 4.7 million seats per year are on offer to Standard Class passengers on London Northwestern Railway (LNR) from next month to the benefit of Watford residents, it has been announced. LNR – one of the UK’s rammed commuter and mid-distance service on the West Coast Main Line between Euston, Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Crewe – will declassify First Class on all of its trains when the new National Rail timetable is launched on Sunday, May 21. The major railway operator revealed that First Class services have been ‘in decline’ across their network for some time.
This news comes after Southeastern became the first London train service provider to remove First Class from all its trains last December. From May 21, passengers can sit anywhere on an LNR train[1] with a standard class ticket, including seats which are currently First Class. Anyone with a First Class ticket for LNR beyond May 21 can claim a refund online or at an LNR ticket office, MyLondon[2] reports.
First Class will still remain available to several LNR stations as parallel services with First Class still in operation will continue to run – notably Avanti West Coast to Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Crewe, and Southern to Wembley Central and Harrow & Wealdstone – both serve Watford[4] Junction. A few of LNR’s existing trains will be replaced by new Class 730 ‘Aventra’ trains, which are similar to trains used on the Elizabeth line and Greater Anglia services. These trains will not have any First Class seating, however they will be mutually used with the existing Class 350 ‘Desiro’ trains, where the First Class seating will remain, but antimacassars (headrest cloths), curtains and signage will be removed as all trains will be Standard Class throughout.
LNR services often stop at Euston and Harrow & Wealdstone only within Greater London[5], after the operator stripped its services to Wembley Central in December last year. LNR trains now only stop at the Zone 4 interchange station when works are taking place on other lines, or when there is a major event at the nearby stadium. National Rail operators are being encouraged by the Government to make savings where possible and increase leisure travel, which has been more popular than business travel in terms of passenger numbers since the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the latest data from the ORR regulator, passenger numbers on West Midlands Trains and LNR-branded services combined are still a third down on the equivalent final quarter in 2020.