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Surrey MPs go fishing for rail improvements
June 20, 2007 12:00 AM
Chris Grayling, Humfrey Malins and Anne Milton, the Conservative MPs for Epsom & Ewell, Woking, and Guildford respectively, and Tom Brake and Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat MPs for Carshalton & Wallington and Sutton & Cheam respectively, today joined campaign group Transport 2000's [1] Sardine Man [2] and actress Jenny Agutter in calling on the Government to tackle rail overcrowding and improve and expand services for passengers through its upcoming 30-year rail strategy. With over a billion people taking train journeys every year, rail overcrowding has become the number 1 passenger concern. Government figures forecast a 30% growth in rail passenger miles by 2016 [3].
The Conservative party MPs said that if we are to meet our international obligations on climate change then we need to put rail at the heart of a green transport strategy. They also claimed the Government is failing to tackle overcrowding on railways and needs to make decisions on capacity enhancing projects quickly to avoid people turning away from the railways.
The Liberal Democrat MPs said the Government's failing transport policy is creating a prohibitively expensive railway and that after a decade of New Labour, Britain's rail fares are the most expensive in Europe. They also argued that tackling overcrowding by raising the cost of travelling is a perverse incentive, which will simply force even more people back into their cars.
Jenny Agutter, Transport 2000's patron, is encouraging other MPs to follow the lead of the above-mentioned Surrey MPs. "Rail use by passengers and for freight is having a real renaissance and is at its highest level since the 1950s, and still rising. This is great news - but the rail network and number of services has not expanded to keep up with demand. The Government will be issuing a rail strategy this summer which must place growing the railways at its heart."
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