The Rail Minister Paul Maynard has listened to your calls for faster more reliable trains.
He said: 'I would like to emphasise how much I appreciate your work and continued interest in better rail services for your constituents.' He has passed the results of my rail survey on to the team who are deciding who will run the south east rail network in the future, saying: 'I have shared your letter with the franchise competition team who will consider your views'. You can read the whole letter here.
He was responding to a letter I wrote in January highlighting the key findings from my survey, such as 69% of rail users said that trains were unreliable, and 58% wanted better communication over delays. This will be taken into account when the Government chooses who will run the south east rail network from December 2018.
He encourages local rail users to respond to the consultation, which you can do here. The deadline is the 23 May 2017.
I am pleased that the Minister is listening to our local concerns. Rail services have not been good enough over the past few years, with delays eating unhealthily into family time, and making the daily commute a struggle. The consultation represents an excellent opportunity to make the case for the changes we want to see.
I will be making my submission to the consultation in the coming weeks. If you have thoughts on the consultation, please do write to me here.
You can still respond to my rail survey as I still check submissions. You can take the survey here.
