Cordon quizzes rail staff on new timetable (South West Surrey Liberal Democrats)

South West Surrey Liberal Democrats <info@swsurreylibdems.org.uk>

Cordon quizzes rail staff on new timetable

November 8, 2004 12:51 PM

Simon Cordon at Milford Station, discussing public transport issues with staff

Simon raises concerns about the new timetables and other public transport issues with South West Trains managers

Simon Cordon met with rail managers from across the area this morning, at a 'Meet the Managers' session at Milford, Simon's local station. Simon also spent time with local rail users discussing their experiences.

"We had a very helpful discussion", said Simon, "The changes to the timetables on both the Portsmouth-Waterloo and Alton-Waterloo lines were discussed in depth. I still disagree with a lot of their reasoning behind the new timetables."

"We covered a lot of other subjects, such as help point machines, and in the wake of the tragedy in Berkshire on Saturday, the level crossing at Milford," added Simon.

Since South West Trains is part of the Stagecoach Group, Simon brought up the subject of better integration of buses and trains. Simon has been leading the campaign against the huge bus cuts in Surrey. The opinion of the managers was that the barrier to greater integration was a lack of political will from the Labour Government, and the structures imposed centrally from Westminster.

Blame for the bus cuts was laid squarely at the door of the Conservative-run Surrey County Council. One of the managers commented, "They remove the subsidy and, whoosh, the service is gone".