Do you use London Day Travelcards from Market Harborough? 
If so, are you aware there is a risk that they may be withdrawn?
The Government’s funding settlement for Transport for London (TfL) requires TfL “to develop and implement changes that will generate between £0.5-£1.0bn per year of additional revenue from 2023”. (Source: TfL website – see link below.)
One option was to withdraw all Travelcards, but that has been rejected for weekly and longer-term Travelcards.
However, Day Travelcards may yet be withdrawn, such that “Customers travelling from outside London would have to pay for their journey to a London train station and then use PAYG (Pay As You Go) or buy paper tickets to travel on TfL services”. (TfL)
We acknowledge that payment for travel within London by Oyster card or contactless bank card is easy and can even be cheaper for some passengers than a Travelcard.  However, a Day Travelcard add-on to a rail ticket from Market Harborough is simple and understandable, with the total cost fixed when you buy the ticket.
If Day Travelcards are withdrawn, we are concerned about:

• Detriment to day-trippers, for whom the Travelcard is a straightforward means of getting into and around London with one ticket
• Detriment to commuters, for whom even a flexi-season ticket may not be viable in a post-Covid world of part-time and flexible working
• Loss of the Travelcard advantage of there being no evening peak time restrictions on the journey home
• Possible loss of revenue to EMR if Travelcards are withdrawn and there is no equally attractive replacement.  That could then have implications for our train service here at Market Harborough. 

We in Harborough Rail Users have written to Neil O’Brien, MP for Harborough, expressing our concern about the possible withdrawal of London Travelcards.  We note that, though TfL decisions are essentially delegated to the Mayor, the Secretary of State for Transport has powers under section 143 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 to overrule the Mayor's decision, as follows:
(1) Where the Secretary of State considers that--
    (a) the transport strategy (or any part of it) is inconsistent with national policies relating to transport, and
     (b) the inconsistency is detrimental to any area outside Greater London,
he may direct the Mayor to make such revisions of the transport strategy in order to remove the inconsistency as may be specified in the direction.

We contend that withdrawing Day Travelcards would be inconsistent with national policies relating to encouraging use of public transport, and that it would be detrimental to Market Harborough and many other areas outside Greater London.
If you share these concerns:

• Please respond to the TfL consultation:

           https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/travelcards   
           Deadline extended: this now closes on 6th June 2023

• Please write to your MP and Councillors to express your concerns.

The removal of the temporary toilet cabin back in September 2022 gave the opportunity for an improved layout of the station forecourt.  This finally happened on 7th – 8th April 2023, when new white and yellow lines were marked out.  Gone is the mini-roundabout, but reinstated is the ‘teardrop’ turning loop for taxis at the front of the main building.  Five short-stay parking spaces have been laid out on the east side of the forecourt, backing onto the railway embankment, along with a more clearly defined walking route between the cycle hub and the approach footpath.  We in Harborough Rail Users have been pressing for increased short-stay parking for some time, so it is good to see this happen.  It has been suggested that the casual cycle parking in the black plastic ‘pods’ outside the cycle hub building are to be removed, to release another space for parking.  We are concerned about this and have made representations for such provision to be provided.  Cycle parking for occasional users is essential; the alternative is that people will just chain their bikes to anything fixed and could thereby create nuisance or even hazard.  Subject to that, however, the revised forecourt is much better than the previous rather messy arrangements.