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February 2012

January 2012

Train Companies provide 24 hour services to help returning Britons

21/04/2010

Train companies are running 24 hour services from major London airports to get passengers home as the first flights into the UK resume.

As restrictions are lifted on night flights for Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick airports this evening, operators are providing around-the-clock services overnight to get arriving passengers to central London, where Paddington, Victoria and Liverpool Street stations are to be kept open by Network Rail:

Southern Railway is running Gatwick Express trains to Victoria through the night on a half-hourly basis tonight. Trains will depart from Gatwick Airport during the night at 20 and 50 minutes past the hour with the first of the half hourly trains running at 00:20. Normal service of trains every 15 minutes will start again at 05:00. Hourly services will also be running throughout the night between Gatwick and Brighton. See www.southernrailway.com for details.
National Express East Anglia is running additional Stansted Express services tonight from the airport to Liverpool Street. The operator is also continuing to run extra trains from Harwich to meet demand for passengers arriving there by ferry. See www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com for details.
Heathrow Express is running extra trains tonight between Terminal 5 and Paddington, with trains departing every 45 minutes from both stations. These trains will be non-stop and will not stop at Heathrow Central. Passengers travelling to Heathrow Central (Terminals 1 and 3) and Terminal 4 will be able to use a free inter-terminal coach service which will operate between all terminals. See www.heathrowexpress.com for details.

In addition:

South West Trains is putting three extra trains and crew on standby overnight every day up to and including Friday, to run services after normal timetabled operation if required, providing around 2,200 additional seats. Services would link Portsmouth, Southampton and Southampton Airport Parkway to London Waterloo.
First Great Western is putting on seven extra services tonight between Reading and Gatwick and London and Bristol/Oxford, and more additional services are planned in the coming days as the number of flights into the UK is set to rise.

Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: “This has been a unique and challenging time for passengers and for everybody in the transport sector, and train companies are continuing to do all they can to get people home.

“Operators will continue to work with rail industry partners and the government to respond to the situation as best they can to get people home as quickly and easily as possible.”

Train companies will continue to work closely with the Department for Transport to assess whether overnight services will be needed in coming days.

The overnight provision will complement the extended services that train companies have been running since the volcano in Iceland began to erupt last week, producing an ash cloud which grounded all UK flights.

The additional capacity that has been provided by train companies for services between major cities and to and from passenger ferry ports will continue this week, as many Britons return by sea.

Train companies have responded to a massive increase in demand, with a 50% overall rise in rail journeys to and from ferry ports, and some stations seeing 10 times the usual number of passengers this week.

See www.nationalrail.co.uk for details of those additional services.