A rail users' group for Witham and Braintree says it fears cuts will be made to services once the Greater Anglia franchise takes over the region's rail network.
The Witham and Braintree Rail Users' Association revealed its concerns in response to a report by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) released this week.
It said that bout a fifth of all passenger trains are still running late and to make the rail network more efficient, the number of trains on many routes needed to be cut.
David Bigg, chairman of the association, said: "I have seen the draft timetables for winter, there are no cuts planned. However, cuts are expected to mainline services passing through Witham when the Greater Anglia franchise takes over next spring because there will no longer be two competing train operators.
"According to the documents I have seen, Braintree will remain much the same, Kelvedon and Hatfield Peverel will gain and Witham will lose out. There could be as much as a 40-minute gap between trains."
In terms of train punctuality, the SRA report states in the first three months of the year 80.5 per cent of trains nationwide ran on time, compared with 80.9 per cent in the same period in 2002.
The association's own findings for the Braintree district, served by Anglia Railways and First Eastern, were slightly better.
He added: "For May, 18.2 per cent of trains in our area were late. For the year to date the figure is 18.3 per cent. In May last year, 17.8 per cent of trains were late. In the first quarter the figure was 16.9 per cent."
Published Thursday, June 19, 2003
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