Rail Services: Carshalton and Wallington

Wednesday 26th April 2023 Westminster Hall

15:58

[Dame Maria Miller (in the Chair)]

I will call Elliot Colburn to move the motion, and then I will call the Minister to respond. There will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up, as is the normal convention for a 30-minute debate.

15:59

[Elliot Colburn (Carshalton and Wallington) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered rail services in Carshalton and Wallington constituency.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Maria. This is not the first time that I have had to raise rail provision in the Carshalton and Wallington constituency, and I am sure it will not be the last. First of all, I thought it might be useful for me to outline the situation that my constituents currently face when it comes to local public transport provision. Being situated in a London borough—the London Borough of Sutton—many people will assume that Carshalton and Wallington is incredibly well-connected in its public transportation. However, if anyone looked at my own casework inbox, they would see that that is far from the case.

Broadly, the borough has an average public transport accessibility level, or PTAL, of just 2, with parts of my constituency ranking at level 1 or even zero. What is more, Sutton continually ranks at the bottom of connectivity surveys and is the only London borough not to have access to an underground, overground or Crossrail station. As you can imagine, Dame Maria, that puts enormous strain on the existing public transport network, especially the rail service, which is not helped by the limited bus system.

The strain is felt across all four local train stations: Carshalton, Wallington, Hackbridge and Carshalton Beeches. It is not just the gap at Hackbridge station—I will talk more about that later—that my constituents have to consider, but the gap in overall service. That is because trains running through these stations take commuters north to central London, particularly London Bridge and Victoria, and south to Sutton, Epsom, Dorking, Horsham and further afield. Even before the pandemic, many of the peak services would already be at capacity by the time they reached one of our local stations, and well before they reached their intended destination. I had not been in this place for long before lockdown, but emails from constituents attested to cramped and uncomfortable journeys. I had experienced such journeys myself, as someone who used to commute from those stations. Indeed, I now commute every day to this place.

Fast forward to today, and post pandemic the situation is largely unchanged, just with fewer trains. Despite the return to user levels reminiscent of pre-lockdown levels—at least, that seems to be the case—commuters in Carshalton and Wallington still have to face very cramped peak-time trains.

I have met representatives from Govia Thameslink Railway—the parent company of both Southern and Thameslink, which operate in our four stations—and from Network Rail, and I have brought up the need for more trains to call at Carshalton and Wallington stations during peak times. I would be grateful if the Minister could comment on the work the Government are doing to hold rail providers to account and bring back a full return to pre-pandemic services, and indeed to build upon them.

There are other issues that affect rail provision and the ability to boost the number of trains that can run effectively and on time, or even at all. For residents of Carshalton and Wallington, the train timetable tells one story, but the reality on the station platforms tells a very different one. Our lines are bedevilled with cancellations because of broken trains, a lack of drivers or signalling faults; at least, those are the reasons we are given. I hope that the Minister can shed some light on the work that the Government are doing to tackle those issues.

The other thing I find slightly confusing is that a reason that is often given for not reinstating peak service train timetables in the morning is that more people use the rail service at the weekend, and yet many of my constituents say that at weekends they cannot get a train and have to use replacement bus services, because engineering works are taking place. That becomes incredibly difficult, and I find it very confusing why engineering works cannot be done more efficiently.

I want to touch on infrastructure in a bit more detail. Much of the existing infrastructure is outdated and unreliable, which often means that trains that are scheduled to run are unable to do so, or that there are slower turnaround times for those that can run. Indeed, the infrastructure on the railway network in south London is preventing what is known as the metroisation of suburban rail services in London—the “turn up and go” service that we experience on the London overground. I know that there is an ambition to bring that to some national rail services, particularly in suburban London. With the infrastructure as it is, it is just not possible to achieve that.

I know the Government are already doing a number of things to try to ensure that not just Carshalton and Wallington residents, but the whole country, can reach its connectivity potential. Those things include electrification, digital signalling and better co-ordination between operators and Network Rail, the latter of which would hopefully alleviate many of the problems that we face with frequent service disruption. I would be grateful for an update from the Minister as to where we are in better fulfilling those connectivity challenges through advancements and improvements.

One of the biggest problems preventing us from having a more regular rail timetable is congestion on the railway line. That all comes down to the Selhurst junction—the so-called Croydon bottleneck. Network Rail has drawn up the Croydon area remodelling scheme to try to alleviate congestion at that junction, which is the main junction of the Brighton main line and suburban south London. Not only will the knock-on effects allow more trains and more frequent and reliable services on the Brighton main line, but suburban south London, including Carshalton and Wallington, will be able to run more trains, and more effective and longer trains. If finally implemented, the bottleneck scheme could not only unlock capacity in the south but improve economic output. I would be grateful if the Minister gave an update on the Government’s position on the Croydon bottleneck scheme and what can be done to reignite its potential.

While I fully accept that solutions to some of these issues may take some time to implement, some issues can be dealt with a lot more quickly. Even if more trains appeared on our timetables overnight, there would still be the issue of the trains calling at our stations, particularly Hackbridge and Carshalton Beeches stations. I have spoken to the Minister about this before, so I hope he will forgive me for repeating it. Hackbridge station has two main problems. First, it can only accommodate seven cars, when most of the trains that go through it at peak times have eight cars or more. If the platform were extended to accommodate at least eight cars—preferably 10— it would mean more safety for commuters waiting on that platform, particularly in the morning when the northbound platform towards central London can get very cramped.

Secondly, the southbound platform at Hackbridge has a very serious safety concern at the front end, where the gap between train and platform is so big that it has led to a number of accidents involving constituents falling in that gap, and stalling the rail network as a result. Thankfully, GTR and Network Rail have agreed to lower the level of the track to make it safer. However, they have not committed to completing that work until 2027. I do not think that is fast enough, because this is a very serious safety concern. The gap is so big that even a ramp is an unsafe alternative for those who have mobility problems. I am concerned about someone really hurting themselves by falling down the gap. That has happened already; we have avoided something incredibly serious, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.

At Carshalton Beeches station we have connectivity problems, because the southbound platform does not have step-free access. I have applied many times to the Access for All fund to try to make that right. Those who are travelling back to Carshalton Beeches from central London or other parts of the rail network have to carry on through to Sutton, change platforms and then come back to Carshalton Beeches to disembark safely. As someone who passionately believes that the rail network should be accessible to all, I do not think that those with mobility problems should be subjected to that. What opportunities might there be to apply for the funding to finally make all four of my local stations completely step-free, both northbound and southbound.

In a debate about public transport in my constituency, it would be remiss of me not to mention the ultra-low emission zone. Although it is not directly related to rail services, there is a problem here connected to public transport provision. My constituents are faced with the real possibility that in August they will have to pay £12.50 a day just to use their vehicles in Carshalton and Wallington, as will people planning to visit the local area. The retort of, “Just get on public transport” does not work if we consider the state of the public transport network, as I have set out. The lack of rail services and other public transport infrastructure, and the unreliability of the service that does exist, further adds to the headache my constituents face when going about their day-to-day business.

I reiterate my call to the Mayor of London to scrap plans to expand the ULEZ. My call is backed by the Liberal Democrats and the Green party, and I hope the Minister will join me in it, too. This is the wrong time, and the plans will not work. I sincerely hope that I have the Government’s support on that. Yes, there are issues holding up full restoration of pre-pandemic peak services, but there are a number of solutions, too. These vary in implementation length, depending on the work needed to put them in place. However, solutions will free up capacity, increase usage and unleash unrealised potential across Carshalton, Wallington and further afield.

I sincerely hope that we can hear some Victorian-level ambition for our railway network from the Minister today. Rail does not have to be a relic of a bygone age. It can help super-charge our local economy and unlock new growth, not just for my area but for the rest of south London and the UK. The potential of a well resourced, well built and well serviced railway is exponential—so long, of course, as the Government’s rail plans remain on track.

16:11

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Huw Merriman)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dame Maria. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) for securing this important debate on rail services in his constituency. He is right that, at every opportunity since I was appointed six months ago, he has got hold of me to champion the rights of his constituents. As he says, he is a constituency Member who has a lot of constituents who rely on rail. I am keen to work with him to make their service better.

I will start by setting the context, and talking about covid and changing demand. I am conscious that over the months, my predecessors and I have talked about the challenges, but I want to be more optimistic about the future for rail. I believe it has a great future. Over the past few months, there have been encouraging signs that passengers’ confidence in our railway is beginning to be restored. Nationally, passenger numbers show signs of improvement, and have come close on several occasions to levels seen in equivalent weeks in 2019. There has also been some improvement in the revenue generated across the industry; in some weeks, it averages around 90% of what was generated in that week in 2019.

I believe there is a great future for rail. It is the greener way to travel, and we have a railway heritage. The great people who work on it deserve our support and thanks. I am keen to entice as many people as possible back on to the network, so that we can continue to improve it. However, the pandemic has caused unprecedented change in passenger travel habits. Many people now adopt a hybrid approach, working from home some days of the week, and travelling at different times of the day to avoid the peaks. That means it is quite difficult to make like-for-like comparisons with 2019.

In the light of that, my Department has been working with operators to ensure that they provide rail services that respond to new passenger travel patterns, are fit for the future, and carefully balance cost, capacity and performance. As has often been remarked, the Government have earmarked £16 billion of funding for rail services since the start of the pandemic. That is money from the taxpayer. That is clearly unsustainable in the long term. I am sure you would agree, Dame Maria, that it is unfair to expect taxpayers to subsidise services that continue to exceed demand, and on which there are empty spaces, considering all the costs that over-provision would entail. We must ensure that services are balanced to meet the challenges.

In the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington, off-peak and peak passenger use remains below pre-pandemic levels. The September 2022 timetable change saw the Monday to Friday off-peak and weekend service from Carshalton to London Victoria via Mitcham Junction reduced from four trains per hour to two. Those changes were made in response to our requirement for operators to balance capacity and demand. The weekday peak service remained at four trains per hour. There are no timetable changes in May 2023, but the Epsom to London Bridge route via Carshalton Beeches and Wallington service will now predominantly run as a four or five-carriage formation off-peak on weekdays and weekends, reflecting demand. Weekday peak services will continue to operate with eight or 10 carriages, to meet higher demand.

Let me turn to the performance of the operator. After some significant challenges in December, which were associated with continued driver availability constraints and high levels of annual leave, I am pleased to see that cancellations have reduced significantly this year, especially in recent periods. GTR retains a considerable focus on continuing that improving trend and delivering the reliability that customers expect and deserve. My Department is working closely with GTR, and as my hon. Friend might expect, closely monitors levels of short-notice cancellations and service delays. Any decrease in performance in those areas can negatively impact the management fee that the train operator receives.

My hon. Friend rightly expects closer working between the operator and Network Rail. GTR and Network Rail collaborate on plans for future investment, maintenance and operation of the railway in the area. Indeed, since I have been appointed, I have insisted on having meetings with both Network Rail’s regional director and the head of the train operator, so that I can hear about their integration at first hand. The Department actively encourages closer working to improve the overall experience for passengers.

My hon. Friend rightly asked about infrastructure upgrades, including the Brighton main line upgrade programme. Of course, I understand the desire for an update on the Croydon area remodelling scheme, which seeks to address capacity constraints in the Croydon area. As he will be aware, following the autumn statement and the more recent Budget, we are reviewing the rail network enhancements pipeline, which is our programme for investment in future rail. In the economic context, it is more important than ever that the enhancement schemes that we take forward are affordable, and respond to the changes in demand for travel that I described. We are taking the proper time to ensure that schemes in the portfolio reflect those priorities. We will make the outcome public once the work is complete, thereby confirming the status of schemes across England and Wales, including the Croydon area remodelling scheme, so I ask my hon. Friend to give us a little more time before we update him.

My hon. Friend also asked about digital signalling, which I am very excited about. A programme is being rolled out on the London North Eastern Railway, on the east coast. I have seen the work that has been undertaken, and have worked alongside those who are delivering it. The efficiencies that it will bring are incredibly exciting. Network Rail is considering conversion to digital signalling on the Brighton main line as part of its renewals process for control period 7; I will bring him further news on that front as and when we have it.

My hon. Friend rightly talks about how we can help those with mobility issues to access the railway. We want a railway network that provides disabled people with improved opportunities for work and leisure travel. Indeed, we want to help all those who struggle to get on the railway, including parents with children in buggies, so that the railway, rather than the car, is a choice for them. The Department is very proud to support the Access for All programme, which has provided step-free accessible routes at over 220 stations, and smaller-scale access improvements at 1,500 more stations. All available Access for All funding has been allocated to projects until March 2024, but we are assessing over 300 nominations with Network Rail for stations for future awards. I am pleased to say that those include a nomination for Carshalton Beeches station, in anticipation of further funding becoming available beyond 2024. I expect to make an announcement regarding successful schemes later this year. I hope that my hon. Friend will bear with us as we assess his scheme, and I wish him well in that regard.

With respect to the larger-than-usual gap between the platform and the front of the train at Hackbridge station, which my hon. Friend mentioned, I can report that Network Rail is actively considering a full renewal of the platform, which would come in a few years hence. That would reduce the gap. I hope to bring him more news, and I thank him for bringing that to our attention. I can assure him that we are looking at the issue with Network Rail.

Finally—this is not in the rail portfolio, but it is right for me to respond for the Department for Transport—my hon. Friend made his views on the ULEZ expansion clearly known. I thank him for bringing the matter to Parliament and to the attention of the Government. All I would say is that if I were Mayor of London, which would be unlikely given that I am an East Sussex MP, I would not expand the ultra low emission zone, particularly given the financial impact on drivers and visitors to London, as my hon. Friend said. I will continue to use my role to work with him, and across Government, to ensure that the Mayor of London is held accountable for any decision that he makes. I am aware, as I know many Londoners and many people just outside London are—I am one of them, as I have mentioned—that cash barriers around London will have an impact on London as a whole and businesses in London. My hon. Friend makes the point well.

I hope that my hon. Friend has been reassured by the information that I have been able to give him, and that he can see the Government’s ambition to improve journeys for passengers and create a better, more modern railway industry that delivers good value for money. He is a real champion for his constituents, so I am sure that he will continue to engage with me, stop me to talk to me at every opportunity, and hold further debates. I thank him for this debate.

Question put and agreed to.

16:20

Sitting suspended.