News

First Capital Connect boosts early and late services for rest of 2012 Olympic Games

02/08/2012

First Capital Connect (FCC) is lengthening and adding more services on the Great Northern route every day of the week between Friday 3 August and Sunday 12 August to help passengers get to and from the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The service boost will deliver an additional 29,000 seats on top of the 760,000-plus extra seats FCC has already put on for the Olympics. In particular, six early morning and evening services on Sunday 5 and 12 August have been lengthened to cater for people travelling into London to watch the men’s and women’s marathon events.

These extra improvements also mean that every station between King’s Cross and Watton-at-Stone on the inner suburban Hertford ‘loop’ will have another additional weekday service during the Games.

Neal Lawson, MD First Capital Connect says: “We are working hard to ensure we offer the best possible service to passengers and visitors, including for un-ticketed events. These extra seats will go a long way to helping our passengers travel to and from London as quickly and comfortably as possible, ultimately enhancing their Olympic experience.”

Further travel advice

• Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield and Potters Bar passengers who are catching the extremely busy 4-carriage service that calls at these stations at 06:40, 06:44 and 06:49 respectively are urged to use the earlier service leaving these stations at 06:35, 06:39 and 06:46 respectively for a more comfortable journey. This is a longer, 6-carriage train and arrives at London King’s Cross only three minutes later, at 07:10. The 4-carriage service cannot be lengthened because it calls at stations further up the route that have short platforms

• Passengers are urged to plan their journeys using National Rail Enquiries journey planner (www.nationalrail.co.uk) – all these services will show online, but are not necessarily in the FCC printed timetable

• Look at the service ‘heat maps’ on our website www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk and avoid the busy times if you can
• Visit www.GetAheadoftheGames.com to plan and avoid station and other travel hotpots
• Follow @GAOTG for the latest tips and travel advice and @TfLTravelAlerts and @TfLTrafficNews for the latest on how services are operating
• If you commute, travel earlier if you can; consider leaving earlier if out for the night in London; don’t leave it to the last train, as they are likely to be busy

Details of lengthened and additional services

These further improvements have been delivered on the following train services:

Saturday services (Saturday 4 & 11 August)

• 06:46 and 07:46 Peterborough – King’s Cross, calling at Huntingdon, St Neots, Sandy, Biggleswade, Arlesey, Hitchin, Stevenage and Finsbury Park: both lengthened from 4 to 8-carriages
• 00:20 Alexandra Palace – King’s Cross calling at Finsbury Park & King’s Cross: extra  8-car service
  00:50 Alexandra Palace – King’s Cross, calling at Finsbury Park & King’s Cross: extra 6-car service
• 01:41 King’s Cross – Hertford North, calling at Finsbury Park, Alexandra Palace and all stations to Hertford North, except Crews Hill and Bayford: extra 6-car service

Sunday services (Sunday 5 & 12 August)

• 06:28 and 07:28 Cambridge – King’s Cross, calling at Royston, Baldock, Letchworth, Hitchin, Stevenage and Finsbury Park: both lengthened from 4 to 8-carriages
• 20:15 King’s Cross – King’s Lynn, calling at Cambridge and then all stations to King’s Lynn: lengthened from 8 to 12-carriages NB: this train becomes a 4-carriage service at Cambridge to service the village stations to King’s Lynn
• 20:53, 21:53 and 22:53 King’s Cross – Cambridge, calling Finsbury Park, Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock, Royston: all three lengthened from 4 to 8-carriages 
• 00:20 Alexandra Palace – King’s Cross, calling at Finsbury Park & King’s Cross: extra 8-car service
• 00:50 and 01:20 Alexandra Palace to King’s, calling at Finsbury Park & King’s Cross: extra 6-car service
• 00:48 King’s Cross – Hertford North, calling at all intermediate stations: extra 6-car service
• 01:41 King’s Cross – Hertford North, calling at Finsbury Park, Alexandra Palace and all stations to Hertford North, except Crews Hill and Bayford: extra 6-car service
• 01:11 King’s Cross – Welwyn Garden City, calling at all intermediate stations: extra 6-car service

Friday 3 August and Monday 6 – Friday 10 August

• 00:48 King’s Cross – Hertford North, calling at all intermediate stations: extra 6-carriage service
• 01:11 King’s Cross – Welwyn Garden City, calling at all intermediate stations: extra 6-carriage service NB: this is an additional train Mon-Thurs as it already runs on Fridays
• 01:41 King’s Cross – Stevenage, calling at Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace and then all stations to Stevenage via Hertford North except Crews Hill and Bayford: extra 4-carriage extra service
• 00:50 Alexandra Palace – King’s Cross, calling at Finsbury Park: extra 6-carriage service for customers visiting late night events at Alexandra Palace
• 06:25 Welwyn Garden City – Moorgate, calling at all intermediate stations: lengthened from 3 to 6-carriages
• 07:20 Moorgate – Stevenage: lengthened from 3 to 6-carriages
• 08:34 Stevenage – Moorgate, calling at all intermediate stations via Hertford North: lengthened from 3 to 6-carriages
• 23:15 King’s Cross – Ely/King’s Lynn: lengthened from 4 to 8-carriages NB: this service runs as an 8-carriage service from King’s Cross to Cambridge and then as a 4-carriage service to serve the village stations to Ely (Mon-Thurs) and to King’s Lynn (Fridays only)

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