Over 15,000 people have signed a petition demanding the removal of the franchise from Southeastern. I’m not surprised. Most days I get an email or a tweet – or several of both – from people tearing their hair out with frustration at Southeastern. One constituent told me that his train arrived late 25 times in a row. I know everyone was staggered by Southeastern’s latest reason for delay: bright sunshine.
Delays have real consequences for peoples’ lives, whether it’s being late for work, missing appointments or getting home too late to put children to bed.
I told the Transport Minister, Patrick McLoughlin, about the petition and how badly people in Kent are being affected. I asked him to investigate whether Southeastern is in breach of its franchise agreement, and if so, to let me know what action the Government is going to take. There have to be consequences for failure.
He acknowledged that Southeastern’s performance is poor and told me that his department is in talks with Southeastern and Network Rail to try and resolve the problems. The fact that this petition has passed 10,000 signatures means the Government has to respond, and I’ll make sure it does.
But improving infrastructure takes time and the cold weather certainly doesn’t help. Since I was elected in May I’ve had two meetings with David Statham, the managing director of Southeastern, and put all of these concerns to him. I will continue to campaign for more reliable, more frequent and better value train services to keep Kent on track.
