MARTINS Heron railway station will suffer from fewer trains per hour in a shake-up to services. 

Cllr Mark Brunel-Walker has slammed proposals from South Western Railway to reduce the amount of trains passing through the station per hour to two. 

The councillor vented his frustration at the plans having been contacted by local residents. 

He posted: “Lots of angry residents have contacted me about the current proposal by SWR for Martins Heron to be served by two trains per hour.

“I’m fuming.

“Martins Heron is a busy, busy stop on this line that’s used by a lot of people every day.”

Martins Heron is the stop situated between Bracknell and Ascot, and is visited by the trains travelling between Reading station and London Waterloo. 

It is frequently used by residents of the area to get in and out of Bracknell town, as a journey from Martins Heron to Bracknell takes just three minutes. 

Mr Brunel-Walker continued: “If we force commuters to have to use Bracknell or Ascot to find a train time that works or, even a seat or just standing room, then we force more people on the roads, we force more people to find a place to park rather than walking, they add more cost to commuters who then have to pay for parking.

“What we want is a decent train service - 4 trains per hour, 8-10 carriages (not “sorry it’s only 4 because of some ridiculously stupid reason”) and we want decent Wi-fi (it’s the 21st century after all!)

“Hard pressed commuters face increases in season tickets costs every year and we all want a better service with better value for money.”

Cllr Brunel-Walker then expressed his frustration at the timing of the news, and raised concerns about the impact this news will have on stakeholders and customers. 

He explained: “Oh, and one more thing, it would have been very, very nice if you could have mentioned this when you where talking to stakeholders during the bidding phase because we could have saved you the aggravation that you now face. 

“I don’t know which stakeholders and customers gave you extensive feedback, I’m assuming it was people in other areas that this change won’t impact negatively.”

Concerned commuters can contact timetable.feedback@swrailways.com to provide feedback. 

A South West Railways spokesman said: “Before South Western Railway took over the franchise, we contacted key stakeholders across the route to find out what they wanted in terms of improvements for the December 2018 timetable, and these proposals are the results of that feedback.

“The reason we have published the consultation is so that everyone has the chance to comment on the timetable proposals so that the planners can use the feedback to help shape the final proposal.

“There is still time for people to give us their views on our proposals.” 
The consultation runs until Friday 22 December and details on the proposals and how to give feedback are at: www.southwesternrailway.com/timetableconsultation.”