In good news for public transport in the East of England, under questioning by Daniel Zeichner, Member of Parliament for Cambridge and Chair of the East of England All-Party Parliamentary Group, the Government has confirmed it will revisit its decision to half the number of Stansted Express trains.

Prior to the pandemic the Stansted Express rail service ran every 15 minutes. However, when the service was taken over by the Department for Transport during the Covid-19 outbreak, the number of trains was reduced to two per hour.

By the summer passenger numbers are expected to return to pre-pandemic levels. And continuing with the reduced service could lead to overcrowding on the service, resulting in more people opting to drive rather than using public transport.

Following questioning by Mr Zeichner, a government spokesperson has now confirmed the decision to reduce the Stansted Express service will be revisited.

Mr Zeichner said “With passenger numbers returning to normal, people travelling to Stansted need a regular rail service they can rely on. Continuing with a reduced service would have forced many travellers to drive rather than use public transport. I am glad to see that after concerted pressure the Government has finally decided to revisit their decision”.

Steve Griffiths, Managing Director of Stansted Airport, said “As passenger numbers at Stansted recover to their 2019 volumes this summer, now is the right time to restore the full timetable with four trains per hour on the Stansted Express. This will give our passengers, airport staff and local commuters far more convenient and reliable access to and from the airport and encourages the use of public transport over the car. george.williams@parliament.uk

“Before the pandemic, Stansted enjoyed the highest public transport share for passenger and staff trips of any major airport, at over 50%. We’re proud of this record and re-establishing more frequent rail services will help to protect it.”