Delivering a Fairer Deal for Rail Commuters

I am campaigning to ease overcrowding and improve value for money on South Western Railway (SWR).

I regularly meet with Network Rail, the train operators and with Ministers to convey local frustrations – especially with respect to overcrowding at peak times. The government has acted to keep down the cost of commuting and has already frozen regulated fares, saving the average season ticket holder £425 between 2015 and 2020. SWR have also committed to invest £5 million in performance improvement initiatives in 2018/19.

To improve the infrastructure our trains use, Network Rail have laid out plans to invest more than £2 billion in the maintenance and improvement of the South Western franchise over the next five years. This will support the expansion of Waterloo to bring the old international platforms (20-24) back into use, after platforms 1-4 were lengthened in August 2017 to allow longer trains to operate on commuter routes. When complete, the work on Platforms 20-24 will allow peak capacity at Waterloo to increase by 30%, equivalent to enough room for an extra 52,000 people.

The next phase of Network Rail’s improvement strategy for our trains is the planned ‘digitalisation’ of the signals. Once we have the longest trains practicable, the next best way to increase services and ease overcrowding is to digitalise the system to enable trains to run with greater frequency. Digitalisation is due to be introduced from 2020.

Our train operating company, South Western Railway (SWR), will also deliver improvements. An independent review into SWR’s performance (which I fed local concerns into) has been completed. It made a number of recommendations to improve the way Network Rail and SWR work together, which both organisations are now working to implement. The Government has also launched a wider review into the entire rail system, to be led by former British Airways Chief Executive Keith Williams, which will report next year.

Alongside this, SWR are committed to investing £1.2 billion into our local trains over the next six years, including £895 million in a new fleet of suburban trains which will start coming into service in 2019, providing the new rolling stock to meet capacity at the expanded Waterloo. They have already invested £110 million refurbishing existing trains, the first of which are due to enter service this December.

Over the longer term, I back the Crossrail 2 project, which would take a lot of pressure off our existing rail services, give local passengers broader direct access to different parts of London, and speed up journey times.

I will continue to work closely with the Department for Transport to ensure concerns around overcrowding are addressed, and to secure a fair deal for passengers which delivers value for money.