Improving our rail services

Woking was built on the railways and has always been served by fantastic connections to London and across the South of England. However, recently train travel has become a nightmare for commuters in our town.

Since South Western Railway (SWR) was nationalised last year, the performance has drastically declined. The delays and cancellations across network are horrendous. I share in the pain and want to assure you I’m working to improve it.

With delays are at their highest level since 2019 – and 1000 more cancellations in the second half of last year than the year before – last week, I pushed the Leader of the House for a debate on SWR.

I was extremely disappointed by his response that that we do not need a debate on it because he expects things to improve. I'm not sure what KPI’s they’re using to measure success, because I don’t see any signs of improvement. It’s yet more evidence that this labour government are completely failing to grasp the scale of challenges facing this country.

Watch me press the Leader of the House

I’m glad that when I raised the topic again this week, the Secretary of State for Transport was more constructive – accepting that “over the last year, performance at South Western Railway has not been up to scratch, but I assure him that we will leave no stone unturned in making sure that his constituents have a better travel experience in future.”

It seems that the government is finally accepting that nationalisation has not gone as planned (to put it politely). Woking's commuters deserve better. I will continue to work alongside the Transport Secretary to pressure SWR to deliver the improvements they have promised to bring an end to the endless delays and disruption.

Watch me press the Transport Secretary

On top of this, I've been working hard to give Woking’s commuters more travel options by expanding our rail connections. Heathrow Southern Railway is a privately financed scheme that would not only give Woking travellers a long overdue direct link to Heathrow but also offer commuters a second route into central London via Paddington.

I recently chaired a roundtable with their team and political stakeholders in Parliament as I push to make this a reality.