1,300 new seats for London Midland trains

Date: 2/10/2009

An extra 1,300 seats are being added on a number of trains running into London.

Services from Harrow, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire are to benefit from the added seats, which will run over five peak time services.

Transport minister Chris Mole said that he wanted to make sure that the increase in demand was leading to an increase in provision.

"These new services complement the improvements made last December in which some trains were lengthened," he said.

Mr Mole also noted that there were more people travelling by train now "than at any time in the last 40 years".

Among the routes to benefit from the new seats is the 06:33 Bletchley to London Euston, the 08:15 Watford Junction to London Euston and 18:20 London Euston to Milton Keynes Central.

The deal was struck between London Midland and the government and the extra seats will be implemented from December 2009.

Last month the train service found itself under criticism after no staff volunteered to work on its Sunday services, leading routes to be cancelled.