The ongoing rise in rail passengers is one of the quiet successes of the last two decades.
Last year UK trains carried more passengers than at any time since demobilisation after the Great War. In the last 15 years alone passenger numbers have increased 60 per cent. Given that so much of the infrastructure on which modern tracks and rolling stock relies was constructed over a century ago the strain is obvious. That is why visiting the London Bridge Station development with Rail Minister Claire Perry and fellow MPs was an uplifting experience. We have all seen, and never want to see repeated, the passengers’ nightmares at the station. There are no excuses but it was important for us to comprehend the scale of what is being undertaken. The transformation of the 4th busiest station in the country, used by 56 million people a year, will have positive impact right across the south-east. Enhancing the track network will significantly reduce the seemingly endless “knock-on” effects that disrupt the whole region.
This is positive but it is only a start. In the parliamentary debate on Southern Railway, led by Nick Herbert, I stressed that no commuter will accept that London Bridge will be the end of the regional investment programme. The Government is committing £38bn to rail improvements and there are many other “pinch points” directly impacting Horsham which must be addressed. Nor is infrastructure the only issue: a series of metrics have been agreed between the operators, Network Rail and the Minister who meet every week on the Joint Improvement Plan. Both infrastructure and new driver recruitment are on plan.
No one expects everything to be solved overnight but from what we saw and are now hearing daily the will and the funding is coming together to keep the vital improvements on track.