“It’s got the stage that we dread using the service” — that’s what one of my constituents told me about the performance of Thameslink’s services to and from Mid Bedfordshire. It’s simply not good enough and that’s why I’ve been working so hard down in parliament to hold Thameslink and ministers to account.
With the government planning to nationalise our railways, we need to ensure they are aware of the many issues commuters are facing on a regular basis so I was pleased to be able to secure a debate in parliament to highlight these problems. While the delays and cancellations are something we need to fix now, we also need to make sure we are focused on the challenges of the future with more houses being built and potential projects like the Universal Studios project adding to demand.
A high-performing Thameslink service is vital to support economic growth in the Oxford to Cambridge growth corridor, which is one of this government’s central missions. Thameslink services already link London to Cambridge, but they will one day also link London with East West Rail at Cambridge, Tempsford and Bedford. If we want to maximise the return on investment of that infrastructure project, its connections into the wider train network need to be fast and reliable.
We also have the prospect of an expanding Luton Airport to plan for, with many more passengers passing through our area. And with East West Rail on the horizon, we need a Thameslink service that is reliable enough for people to be able to count on making their connection train at Bedford.
These are the challenges, and of course the opportunities, the government has to focus on if it plans to nationalise our railway system. But there is much to do to improve the service now.
About 1.5 million passengers use Harlington and Flitwick stations in my constituency each year to get to work, meet friends and go shopping. And if they happen to use the 7.43 am service from Flitwick, their train would have been cancelled 28% of the time in the last 100 days and arrived late 42% of the time. That is simply not good enough.
Statistics tell one story, but it’s listening to local people where you truly feel the impact of this failure. To make sure the point hit home to the minister I asked local people to share their stories with me in a survey on my website. And the hundreds of responses I received in just a few days showed me just how strong people feel about the performance of rail services in Bedfordshire. 80% of those who responded told me that they had been impacted by a cancellation in the past month, and 88% told me that they had experienced a delay of more than 10 minutes. We should be encouraging people to use our railways, not pushing them onto our congested roads or worse, staying at home.
As a regular commuter from the constituency to Westminster myself, I know that these stories are all too common. And in fact just the day before my debate I had to deal with two cancellations and a severe delay on my way in, and further disruption including having to leave at Finsbury Park on the way home.
Taking all of this into account, I can only imagine the frustration my constituents felt when mere days after my debate we learned that rail fares are set to be hiked again this year. If fares are going to increase, commuters and all railway users deserve a reliable and efficient service. Sadly, that is not the standard they are receiving in Mid Bedfordshire, and I’m sure the same can be said across much of the country.
Rail services are not good enough at the moment and there are many challenges to come, but if we get this right there are great opportunities to deliver a better experience for commuters and to deliver economic growth — a key aim of this government.
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Source: Politics
