JACKIE Doyle-Price, the MP for Thurrock, has welcomed proposed changes to the c2c Rail timetable which the firm hopes will relieve overcrowding and improve connections.

But not everyone's happy.

And commuters have until January to make their views on the proposals - which would be introduced next December - known.

Ms Doyle-Price said: "I am pleased that C2C has listened to passengers and proposed these changes to the service. 

"These are now subject to consultation, and I would encourage all users to respond on C2Cs website. 

"Whilst the service is much improved since the days of the misery line, we will only get the service we want if we tell C2C what we want."

From December 2015, all trains will stop at Limehouse and West Ham. There will be more trains between 6am and 9am from Grays, Chafford Hundred and Ockendon but less from Stanford-le-Hope, Tilbury and East Tilbury. The same number of peak time trains will run from Purfleet.

The first trains will be earlier and the last trains later and these plans are part of C2C's wider 15-year plan to provide extra capacity, with 17 new trains coming online by 2019.

Julian Drury, the managing director of C2C, said: "We are proposing these timetable changes to address two of the biggest issues for our passengers: crowding, and their changing travel patterns that require frequent links to the main interchange stations.

"We’ll support this with other improvements to passengers’ journeys, such as investment in stations, new wifi and smartcards, and compensation in future for trains delayed for as little as two minutes.

"This is a consultation, so we really do want passengers to look at the proposals for their station and to tell us what they think."

Currently, 16 services call or start at Stanford-le-Hope bound for central London between 6am and 9am. Under the proposed changes, that would be reduced to 12 services - though C2C does not expect the trains to be significantly more crowded.

The changes also propose 12 trains leaving Tilbury between 6am and 9am, a reduction of two, with only the 8.20am services expected to have few seats for passengers.

The number of trains calling at East Tilbury is also being reduced from 12 to 10.

But the changes will see four more trains calling at Grays between 6am and 9am, up from 20. Four more trains will also call at Chafford Hundred and Ockendon in the rush hour.

However the last train from London to stations on the Tilbury loop will bee half-an-hour later than it is now, leaving Fenchurch Street at 12.19am.

Passengers can find tailored information about their individual stations and respond to the consultation at: c2crail.co.uk/consult_tt

c2c’s consultation will close on 15 January 2015.