Southeastern Rail Services — House of Commons, 2016-01-28
Topic: Transportation
Robert James MacGillivray Neill (Conservative, Centre-right): A sense of déjà vu has arrived, and probably rather more swiftly than the 7.39 at Waterloo East did last night as I was going home. That minor delay did not even warrant an explanation, which is another issue Punctuality is a real issue, as is overcrowding, which has been made worse by the timetable changes caused by the engineering work at London Bridge. That is necessary work, but there are some basic things that Southeastern can get right. More people from my constituency stations use the Cannon Street service in the rush hour than use the Charing Cross service, because it stops at London Bridge, which has the interchange for the Jubilee line, Canary Wharf and whatever. There are generally fewer carriages on the Cannon Street trains than on the Charing Cross trains, which is the complete reverse of where the demand is. That is a basic failure that could be put right now I know that Southeastern is talking to the Department about being able to transfer stock from other parts of the network. That needs to go ahead swiftly, because so far the new trains that have been produced on the franchise have tended to go on the high-speed link trains and have not benefited those of us on any of the commuter services. That needs to be taken on board straightaway. I would welcome the transfer of the franchise, because London Overground has a good track record of performance, but in the interim I hope the Minister will sit down and instruct Southeastern and Network Rail to work with the Mayor’s office and Transport for London immediately to talk about transitional phases, to see whether it is not possible by agreement to speed up the transfer of the franchise and certainly, as has been said, to enforce rigorously the contractual terms to the benefit of passengers and customers in the balance of the franchise Finally, let me highlight some other failings. I have talked about timetabling issues, such as the nonsense of the mismatch of rolling stock between Charing Cross and Cannon Street services. Even with the changes in the timetable, it is pretty bizarre that the interchange at Grove Park for the Bromley North service—a small spur line—was almost deliberately timed to miss the most convenient connecting train, which means people have to hang around for perhaps another 15 minutes or more. That is basic. Why can Southeastern not get that right Charing Cross station is in the heart of London’s theatre-land. Many London commuters, certainly from Chislehurst in my constituency, will go up to the theatre from time to time. The last direct train to stations such as Elmstead Woods and Chislehurst leaves at 10.36 in the evening. Otherwise, anyone who has gone to a show in town will have to wait until gone midnight. That puts huge pressure on them, because otherwise they will have to cart around on the District line to Cannon Street, when there is a station just down the way, or fork out for a taxi to come back from Orpington. The engineering work at London Bridge cannot be an excuse for that. That is just a clear lack of customer care On the most basic level, the staff at our local train stations are excellent. They cope with a pretty poor situation very well and sometimes they get it in the neck when it is not their fault. The people I regularly deal with at Chislehurst and Elmstead Woods are part of the community and they work really hard, but they are not given the information to deal with things and when they try to help, it is not taken up by the management Chislehurst—not the busiest station on the network, but a pretty busy commuter station, as most would imagine—has one automatic ticket machine. It is pretty busy in the rush hour. For the last four weeks, that automatic ticket machine has been unable to take credit cards. Despite daily reports by the station staff that that is a problem—one can imagine the queues it is causing, with people trying to fork out cash-only at that time in the day—it has still not been put right, and it was still not right this morning when I went there. That is a basic failure, and those are the sorts of things that ought to be jumped on from a great height by the operator The level of repeated delay is the issue that really irritates my constituents, but the issue of compensation is also raised. People can claim compensation, but it is not a lot of help on a London suburban network, because the delay has to be 30 minutes. If a journey is supposed to take only 25 minutes, it will have to be doubled or more before anyone is entitled to compensation, which will not matter, because the start of their day’s work will have been mucked around no end in any event. That does not work effectively for suburban commuters—another strong reason why it is better to split the franchise and put short-journey but high-frequency services under the Mayor’s office. Perhaps we could have a better compensation scheme to reflect those commuters’ needs more effectively Against that context, I hope that I have taken the chance to ventilate my constituents’ concerns. It is not good enough if large public bodies or current privately owned bodies acting under contract are persistently unresponsive. I give credit to the Minister for taking steps and holding summits with local MPs and the top management of both Network Rail and Southeastern—an initiative that we had not seen before. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that. She also warned that when the franchise was renewed, it was the last chance. I am sorry, but they have drunk the last-chance saloon dry by now, and it is about time to start calling time on their franchise I hope that the Minister will continue to press on these issues and provide us with a detailed timeframe for when she is next going to meet the management. Will she undertake to meet me to discuss the specific concerns I have raised on behalf of other Members in the area and ensure that all Members are kept briefed on what specifically is happening? We need to be able to see the whites of the eyes of the management, which does not always happen. More initiatives have to be followed up with real measures, which hurt any company where it normally hurts—in the pocket—and we need to look more rigorously at the publicly owned entity Network Rail, which is responsible for a very great deal of the problem, but basks in comparative protection in contractual terms. It should not be allowed to do so. That needs to be thoroughly investigated. Frankly, in the private sector, heads would be rolling if services were run in the way Network Rail and Southeastern run them. There would be proper accountability to customers and shareholders I am grateful for the opportunity to have trespassed on the House’s time, and I believe that my constituents and those in neighbouring constituencies are still more grateful for that opportunity.