PRESS RELEASE

Passengers are paying too high a price for services that, time and again, are failing them ...

Caroline today urged the Rail Minister to back her calls for an urgent rail summit.

Last week Caroline called on Network Rail and Train Operating Companies to attend an urgent roundtable summit with MPs to seek and secure urgent improvements to services and ensure swift compensation for passengers affected by recent rail chaos.

Caroline today urged Minister Claire Perry MP to do more to hold the companies to account by ensuring the summit took place.

She pressed Ms Perry for a review of compensation arrangements to ensure higher rates were made available to passengers experiencing long-term disruption to journeys.

In her letter to the Minister, Caroline added: “My email inbox, mail bag and social media feed are full of complaints from frustrated passengers, who also deeply resent having to pay increased fares for their travel when the service is consistently so poor. Delays, cancellations, overcrowding on trains and on platforms, short notice timetable changes, and chaos on the London Bridge concourse are combining to make train travel a daily misery for many of my constituents.”

Caroline also spoke with Network Rail about overcrowding at London Bridge station. She received assurances that changes were being implemented to address the problem and improve passenger flows. It was crucial she said, that such assurances were followed up in the summit.

Caroline said: “The redevelopment of London Bridge is a very welcome, but my constituents fear the years of upheaval ahead. It’s critical that they and other passengers using the station can do so safely and with the confidence that some basic service standards being met. At present they simply cannot. The prospect of this state of affairs continuing is bad news for rail users and also has the potential for damaging economic and environmental consequences.”

She added: “Passengers are simply paying too high a price for services that, time and again, are failing them. We must have accountability and transparency - urgent change is needed.”

ENDS