Colchester Labour Party

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Labour slams rail services

Colchester Labour Party Chairman Jordan Newell has condemned National Express East Anglia for their continued poor rail services in to and out of Colchester.

With a 6% rise in rail fares this month, Mr Newell – who is a regular rail user – said the use of bus replacement services on week day evenings would be “the last straw” for many travellers. 

National Express East Anglia plans to replace train services with buses from 10pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, meaning Colchester commuters will be forced to travel to Billercay to join a bus service to Witham.

Speaking at Colchester North Station, Jordan Newell said:

“Travellers in Colchester are seeing rail fares rise, while the level of service decreases. Put simply, since loosing the franchise to run this rail line, National Express East Anglia seem not to care about delays and disruption and have clearly given up on any form of customer service.” 

Travellers have been frustrated by the lack of customer care shown by National Express. Tweeting (@NXEastAnglia) about further rail delays today (10/1/12), NXEA were dismissive of the latest disruption, stating that ‘most’ services were running ‘reasonably’.

“Higher fares for fewer services is unacceptable,” Jordan Newell added.