Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Maynard and Clive Efford

Thursday 17th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Paul Maynard]

This is the third time that my hon. Friend has brought me to the Dispatch Box to discuss the Chase line, so no one can say that she is not assiduous on the matter. As she may well be aware, if a passenger’s journey is delayed by 30 minutes, for whatever reason—be it cancellation, part cancellation or a train turning around short of its destination—they are entitled to claim delay repay compensation. Under the new invitation to tender for the west midlands franchise, we are looking at how we scope the “delay repay 15” scheme, which will be brought in under that franchise.

[Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab)]

My constituency is not served directly by the London underground or the docklands light railway, much as we would like it to be, which means that we are heavily reliant on rail services. I receive a stream of complaints almost daily about delays on Southeastern railway. This cannot be allowed to continue, because people are heavily reliant on that service. One thing I would say for Southeastern is that it needs extra capacity—it needs extra carriages. The carriages that become available when the Thameslink programme is complete must be made available for Southeastern so that we can deal with the capacity problem, but we must also deal with Southeastern’s performance.

[Mr Speaker]

I think that the question was rhetorical in nature, but if the Minister wants briefly to reply, he may.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Maynard and Clive Efford

Thursday 15th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab)]

Will the Minister agree to invite all Members whose constituencies are served by Southeastern trains to the meeting with the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill)? Our constituents are suffering daily disruption to their lives, as a result of the poor performance of Network Rail and Southeastern, and we would welcome a meeting with him to bring that to his attention.

[Paul Maynard]

I very much recognise that there are issues involving Southeastern. I am happy to meet Members from all parts of the House.