James Wild MP has used the Prime Minister’s first statement to the House of Commons, to press him to intervene personally and take urgent action to restore a reliable rail service between King’s Lynn and London King’s Cross, following months of disruption for North West Norfolk passengers.
The Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Andy Burnham MP, agreed that rail performance over the summer had been “nowhere near good enough” and that improvement was needed. He announced that he would be holding a Rail Summit shortly and agreed to look at the details of James’ case ahead of that.
It comes after figures from the Fen Line Users Association showed 380 trains were cancelled on the route in July and a further 280 in August following months of disruption.
James Wild MP said:
“At the weekend, the Prime Minister stepped in to ensure that his No. 10 North railway service continued, so in that spirit of problem solving, will he use his office to ensure that rapid action is taken to restore a reliable service from King's Lynn to King's Cross for my North West Norfolk constituents, who had 380 trains cancelled in July and 280 in August?”
In response, the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, said:
“I have said to the Transport Secretary, and she agrees, that the performance of the railways over the summer we have just had has been nowhere near good enough. On a very hot day, passengers on a train from Edinburgh to London had no working toilets on the entire train, and coming back from Cornwall and Devon, the train that I was on was abandoned at Taunton - I think we have all had those kinds of experiences.
“The railways need to improve and public ownership of them needs to drive that improvement. I will be convening a rail summit soon to discuss the summer just gone - I would be happy for the hon. Gentleman to write to me with details of the service he mentioned - because we need to see significant improvement on our railways.”
The exchange follows months of sustained pressure from James on rail operators and the Transport Secretary over the state of the Fen Line, including a meeting with senior executives from Great Northern (GTR) and GBR Anglia last month at King’s Lynn Station to demand a clear improvement plan. Following the further disruption this week, he has written again to the companies and the Transport Secretary urging further action to restore reliability.
