Thank you to all those who have contacted me regarding the continuing shambles over the running of the local rail service by GTR. You will not be surprised to hear that I have received many emails, letters and tweets from angry constituents and my street surgery at the Farmer’s Market in Shoreham last Saturday was a constant queue of frustrated commuters. I completely sympathise with constituents on the huge damage that this wholly inadequate service is having on everyone’s ability to get to and from work, school and college. I have heard accounts of people facing losing their jobs because of the unreliability of the service and some young people missing exams. Whilst fortunately I usually only have to make the journey between Sussex and Westminster once a week I have experienced the problems myself, as have my staff, and I can absolutely see the severe inconvenience this is causing for those who rely on the train every day.
Please be assured that together with many other angry Sussex MPs we are doing everything we can to bring this situation to a head and have raised it countless times in Parliament, with Ministers ad o local media. It certainly helped that the Prime Minister was due to travel to Sussex on Monday of this week to attend a referendum meeting only to arrive at Victoria to find 5 trains cancelled and as a result had to travel by car and arrived very late. WE made sure the Transport Secretary got to hear about this and on Wednesday a further meeting has been arranged at the Department of Transport. If you have followed me on social media and on my website or in the press you will have seen that last week the management of GTR came to Parliament for a briefing with Sussex MPs and were given a very hard time. I have provided a short podcast with an update on that meeting on my webiste which I would suggest you look at if you have not done so already. I will providing similar updates as things develop though given that the latest ACAS talks yesterday broke down we are clearly still some way off resolving the industrial dispute which is at the heart of the latest ‘meltdown’ in service.
Whilst there is a lot of speculation and misinformation flying around I have been asking various questions to get to the bottom of how severely the fines for late and cancelled running are impacting on GTR, and whether it is true that ‘planned’ advance cancellations do not count against the penalty terms. Certainly they should be punished for running trains late, severely late, skipping stations or effectively running a reduced service by mass cancellation of trains and I am trying to quantify that. In addition many people have spoken to me about the effect of the company’s overtime policy and how this has been changed as regards staff involved in disputes or who have phoned in sick. Certainly on all sides there are many questions to be asked but this whole situation has been badly handled. As I said in my podcast passenger seem to feature very low down the priorities for GTR sorting this service out.
I am very well aware of the problem therefore and committed to doing whatever I can working with my colleges to help sort it out. What has been particularly helpful is when constituents email me specific examples of really shoddy service when they have been left high and dry together with photos of display boards revealing mass cancellations and delays. Please continue to send me those and we will use them appropriately. Please also continue to look at the Trainwatch section on my website on www.timloughton.com and on my Facebook page for updates and hopefully there may be some progress to report soon. Ultimately that may mean GTR losing their franchise and I have said that publicly but that can only be done if there is someone ready and better to pick up the pieces ad given the size and complexity of the franchise it is not that easy for the Department of Transport to step in and take it back itself but that must remain an option.
Once again I am really sorry for the considerable inconvenience and pain that you are being subjected to at the hands of GTR.