Local Rail Travellers 'Shunted Up the Junction'

7.00.00pm GMT Mon 21st Nov 2005

Alan Dean, Lib Dem District Councillor's predictions on the state of the local railway have been proven right

Councillor Alan Dean has hit out at BAA Stansted and One Railway for betraying local rail travellers with their proposal for a new rail timetable from next month.

The Lib Dem District Councillor for Stansted South said: "From December commuters to London from Stansted Mountfitchet and other local station will be treated like off-peak travellers to a slower service for the first time in the history of the local railway. One Railway should slash their fares accordingly."

Councillor Dean upset the former British Rail management at a station renaming ceremony in 1990. As the then parish council chairman, he renamed the former Stansted station Stansted Mountfitchet. He warned against local residents and commuters 'being shunted up the junction' by the then soon to be opened airport rail link. "I feared 15 years ago that the airport would get the better deal. I have been proved right," he said this week.

Councillor Dean still possesses a plaque of the renaming event on 29 September 1990. "My remarks hit a raw nerve and BR never erected the plaque at the station! That is a small matter compared with the raw deal now being inflicting on local rail travellers."

Besides degrading the London commuter service, Cllr Dean claims that services to the airport from the village that gave the airport its name are also being slashed. "Currently there are six trains between 05.30 and 08.30, the first at 05.43. From December there will be only two trains in that period and the first will not be until 06.37, which is too late to catch the 07.00 period of flights. Moreover, airport workers will be unable to get to work by train.

"The problem is that BAA say it's all One Railway's fault. One Railway blames the airport, the government and Network Rail. Local people are left as 'piggy in the middle,' abandoned to the interests of big business."