Bring back half-hourly service on branch line, says campaigner

A RAIL campaigner is calling for trains on the Henley branch line to fully return to being half-hourly.

Trains on the line were cut to hourly during the coronavirus pandemic.

Half-hourly services have now resumed during commuter times but are yet to return during off-peak hours.

Neil Gunnell, who runs the train passenger support group Henley Trains, is asking Great Western Railway to resume the full service early next year.

The branch line is used by passengers travelling from London Paddington, who then change at Twyford to come to Henley.

Great Western Railway says passengers have not returned to using the line in sufficient numbers to justify reinstating the full service.

But Mr Gunnell argues that until the half-hourly trains return, people won’t use the service. Mr Gunnell said: “They cut it to hourly during covid when it wasn’t in use, which is understandable.

“But it’s taking longer than we would like for full service to return. It has been restored in the morning and evening and for the school run, which is good, but not in the evening and in off-peak times.

“The next time Great Western will be making changes is in December. They have been engaging with stakeholders and we hope there will be improvements then and full service will return early next year.”

Mr Gunnell conceded that as few as five people were using some of the late-night branch line trains. “Numbers aren’t recovering but is that because there’s not demand or because the service isn’t there?” he said.

“If you only run a service every hour people will drive to Twyford and park there instead. If I’m going to London now, I will just drive to Twyford. You can get back to Twyford from London more regularly but then you can’t get on to Henley.

“There’s no fast service at 20 past from Paddington anymore so people have to take the slow service.

“You then miss the connection and have to wait for up to an hour in Twyford. It’s a jigsaw and a piece has been removed.

“If you don’t have a service you won’t have numbers. It’s a chicken-and- egg situation.

“The branch line brings workers into Henley, it brings tourists into Henley and it enables people to live in this lovely place and still have access to the city. Rail passenger journey recovery is coming faster for leisure than for business, so why are the commuter services coming back but not the trains at leisure times?

“At the moment, if you’re coming back from London there’s a train at 10.20pm, which is quite early, and 11.20pm, which is very late.

“There are other issues that make it hard for GWR to bring the service back, for example, they couldn’t find train drivers during the pandemic because they couldn’t have a trainee in the cabin with the driver as only one person could be in there. We understand all that but we hope we will see the service returned in full.”

Great Western Railway said services on the Henley branch line would return to half hourly from December 12, when the company would next update its timetables.

• What do you think? Write to: Letters, Henley Standard, Caxton House, 1 Station Road, Henley or email letters
@henleystandard.co.uk