RAIL chiefs insist Beaconsfield passengers will get a better service from December – despite the prospect of fewer trains from their station each day.

Chiltern Railways boss Rob Brighouse was challenged about the reduction at a Beaconsfield Town Council meeting last week – with Cllr Philip Bastiman complaining the firm’s new timetable would mean ten fewer trains per day for the town.

But Mr Brighouse said the soon-to-be-published schedule would provide more evenly spaced services with 600 more seats into London in the morning peak, which would be more useful for passengers.

And he said the 7.49am train from Beaconsfield to London would be saved after it was cut from a draft timetable.

Cllr Bastiman, who commutes to London, says the restoration of the 7.49 is "good news", but told the meeting there have still been issues with a lack of seats, train cancellations and carriages out of service.

Chiltern Railways says the increasing demand for train services has made it more difficult to keep up with the volume of maintenance work - which can cause cancellations.

The firm has maintenance depots in Aylesbury and Wembley but is currently seeking another location to keep up with demand.

Mr Brighouse told the meeting: “There are standards on cancellations we have to achieve and we’ve had a bit of a wobble I accept that.”

“[We are] trying to come up with some short term fixes to make better use of those depots.

“Compromises are being made which means I’m not 100 per cent confident about the quality of the services, but compromises are not made on safety.”

However, he said the firm ran 97.5 per cent of its trains on time last month which made it the “top performing train operator”.

The new timetable will be available next month.

Story amended on October 19 to clarify that the 7.49am is not a new train. It will be restored to the new timetable after it was removed in a draft version.