At its last meeting, Alfreton Town Council considered an update on further changes to East Midlands Railway services.

The meeting heard that in little under 12 months EMR had substantially reduced services to the Town, including the removal of the Towns direct London services after almost 50 years, and more recently a 35 per cent reduction in regional services to the Town with 48 hours’ notice with mass cancellation due to operational difficulties.

The meeting was also told has EMR has now twice reneged on promises to reinstate those services from December 12 and January 3 respectively, only advising stakeholders retrospectively and was still taking bookings for travel on these withdrawn services.

Council deputy leader Mary Kerry told the meeting that it is apparent that East Midlands Railway has been less than transparent in their correspondence, most notably with fare-paying customers. And would seemingly have an unhealthy culture in that respect highlighted by recent suggestions of a ‘slightly reduced timetable’ which has subsequently transpired to be almost one in five of their trains scheduled to call at Alfreton.

The Town Council has previously passed a vote of no confidence the management of East Midlands Railways, and it was unanimously resolved at their recent meeting that should be extended to call for the top level of management at EMR to consider their position to allow both the culture and service to be addressed by a new team.