(1 week, 5 days ago)
Commons ChamberWe will see 44 additional trains per day on the new timetable from Southeastern. CrossCountry restored its full timetable today, and we hope to see new timetables from TransPennine Express in the coming weeks. We have procurements out for TransPennine Express and Southeastern, I believe, so my hon. Friend will see new rolling stock in due course.
People can only go so far out of London into the Spelthorne constituency on their Oyster card; they have to buy a train ticket for the last couple of stops. This anomalous situation means that major employers such as BP and Shepperton Studios send buses up the line to pick up their workers to do a day’s work. The Secretary of State will soon be the proud owner of South Western Railway, Transport for London and Great British Railways, so can she please make herself an absolute hero in Spelthorne and get it into the Oyster zone?
The Mayor of London is the owner of Transport for London, but we can absolutely work together to see whether anything of that nature can be achieved. I see no reason why we cannot make progress on that issue.