Basingstoke MP Maria Miller recently invited Andy Mellors, Managing Director of South Western Railways, and Andy Thomas, Managing Director of Network Rail Wessex Route to Basingstoke, to meet local rail users and hear their concerns about rail services, and set out how they plan to improve the service.
The rail chiefs acknowledged that performance had not been good enough and that communication with passengers also needed to improve. They said that driving up operational performance was their top priority, trying to make sure that trains left on time and arrived on time, and that passengers got clear, accurate information when things went wrong.
Maria said: “I am grateful to Andy Mellors and Andy Thomas for coming to Basingstoke to meet local commuters, who had some searching questions for them. I think it was a really helpful session, and that the rail companies are working hard to get to grips with the problems many of us have experienced.”
“Our questions to the railway companies covered a lot of ground, including capacity on trains from Basingstoke, their resilience in recovering from incidents on the railway, delay repay and smart cards, and improvements needed in and around Basingstoke station. We also talked about the funding for enhancements to the railway line, such as the ‘Woking Flyover’, and the recent consultation on rail fares, including the ‘part-time season ticket’ carnet, which doesn’t really work as we expected. I will be taking both these issues up with Ministers.”