This was a pretty rough meeting and it is safe to say that no one pulled their punches and the great dissatisfaction with the way that Govia Thameslink Railway [GTR] are running this franchise was vigorously represented. It was also clear of the fury at Network Rail for the way that they mismanage some of their projects i.e. at the Clayton Tunnel this morning where they failed to complete a long planned job on time and in the process damaged a cable causing chaos and gross inconvenience.
All the Members of Parliament present agreed that there has to be a substantial improvement in the way that the franchise is run.
To be fair to GTR there is a formidable challenge because of successive Governments’ failure to invest in the infrastructure – much of the line was built in the 1930s.
London Bridge is being re-built and they do not have enough drivers – a situation which is frankly of their own making .
However, it is right to note that new world class trains will start to be delivered at the end of this year and shortages because of lack of drivers should end in the middle of the year.
Given the scale of the work on this line and the time it is taking it is likely that there will be further irritating delays and I urge on GTR the absolute necessity of far better communications during the journeys with their passengers.
I ask our long-suffering passengers to be aware that whilst there is very substantial investment being made by the Government, National Rail is running a service that moves over 486,000 people through London Bridge every weekday, of them approximately 150,000 need to arrive between 0730 and 0900. At London Bridge over 163,000 passengers per weekday are travelling on GTR services. At Victoria the number travelling on GTR services is now almost 240,000 per weekday.
Similarly, the scale of what has already been delivered should not be under-estimated. Both the Underground and National Rail stations at Blackfriars have been rebuilt. Farringdon station has been rebuilt and extended, including the new Crossrail access. London Bridge is being rebuilt. These are major undertakings.
Six of 15 newly constructed platforms at London Bridge have been completed. In early 2016, Gatwick Express trains will enter service, thereby improving the passenger experience on the Brighton Main Line.
Thus for all the sound and fury and the awful inconvenience to our commuters and our passengers it has to be an inescapable fact that such a huge scale of engineering investment until it is finished will bring obvious risk to delays for passengers. We will continue to monitor GTR and Network Rail very carefully to see that they keep to their promises.
Although it was a pretty tense meeting there is no doubt that GTR and Network Rail are very clear that they have to raise their game.
Statement issued by Network Rail, Govia Thameslink Railway and the Rail Minister, Claire Perry MP, after the Rail Summit:
19th January, 2016
Dear All
The Rail Minister would like to thank those of you who were able to attend yesterday’s South East Quadrant Taskforce meeting at the House of Commons. As promised in the meeting, please find below a joint statement from Network Rail and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and a quote from the Rail Minister:
“We had a challenging but constructive meeting with the Minister, listening to MPs and explaining what we are doing to improve services.
Network Rail and GTR are working closely together to increase punctuality, with Network Rail making track, signalling and other systems more dependable and GTR bringing in new, more reliable trains this spring and still more drivers.
Increased passenger demand and essential improvement work at London Bridge has made any problems that do occur on the Brighton Main Line up to four times more difficult to recover from, as there is simply less room for the huge number of trains we run every day. However, when this work is finished, our services will be transformed for passengers with greater connectivity and more capacity to, from and through the heart of London.”
Rail Minister Claire Perry said:
“It’s inexcusable that customers on this part of the rail network are not receiving the service they deserve. There are problems that are being fixed, such as driver shortages and old trains. But the operator and Network Rail have still got to do better when it comes to fixing faults and communicating with their passengers. We are all completely committed to getting this railway back to high performance by 2018.”
In the News:
Rail Minister committed to getting railway back on track (East Grinstead Online 19/01/2016)
Soames: Network Rail ‘have to raise their game’ (East Grinstead Online 19/01/2016)
Rail bosses told to "raise their game" at London summit following infuriating delays (East Grinstead Courier 19/01/2016)
Train service from Eastbourne is ‘appalling’, town’s MP tells rail operators (Eastbourne Herald 19/01/2016)
Sussex politicians ‘will no longer accept current level of rail service’ (Eastbourne Herald 18/01/2016)
Rail organisations should be ‘ashamed’ of service, Wealden MP says after ‘crisis’ meeting (Eastbourne Herald 18/01/2016)