Horatio Nelson is undoubtedly Norfolk’s most famous son and our country’s greatest naval commander. This week we commemorated victory at the Battle of Trafalgar and his heroism and death. I recommend the ‘Rest is History’ podcast on Nelson from his early life in Burnham Thorpe through to his time in the Navy. I was fortunate to attend the same school as he did and he also spent three years studying in my home town.
When I drive back to Norfolk from weekdays in Parliament I look forward to being welcomed by the “Nelson’s County” sign. Ideally, I would let the train take the strain more but like many passengers I find the service very mixed and in need of improvement.
As I write this article, my Great Northern train has just been cancelled due sadly to a person hit by a train. Clearly this is not the company’s fault and my thoughts are with the family and friends of the individual as well as staff and emergency services who dealt with the incident.
However, aside from such unforeseen tragedies people report regularly delayed services; last minute cancellations often at night; a lack of information about what is going on; and the comfort - or lack of it - of the journey.
These are among the common issues raised with me so I recently launched a survey to see how typical this was for services to and from Lynn.
In their responses passengers highlighted reliability as the most pressing issue. Recent performance figures highlight the fact that fewer than half of trains to King’s Lynn arrived on time over the summer, alongside cancellations and regular weekend closures due to infrastructure works.
Such frequent delays and cancellations disrupted journeys to work, access to healthcare, and family plans. 57% said they experienced at least one delay a week - some respondents drive to Peterborough to get a service instead.
Service standards and communication during disruption were another recurring theme. Passengers reported a lack of information when trains were cancelled or delayed. Others pointed to broken toilets requiring them to leave the train at Cambridge so their child could use station facilities.
Extensive engineering works at weekends put people off travelling harming our businesses and attractions. 88% travelled less when replacement buses were in place. One positive is I have been assured the train time will reduce by around minutes on the service once the improvements around Cambridge are complete.
Concerns over fares and value for money were also common - many compared costs unfavourably with those to drive.
It is essential to be able to rely on trains or other public transport getting you where you need to be on time - whether for work, school, college, health or other appointments, or meeting friends and family. These results show how disruption, high fares, and service issues are all negatively affecting rail users.
Reliable train services should be the norm. Following the conclusion of the survey, I will now be raising these results with Great Northern and Network Rail and pressing for improvements and service standards that customers pay for and rightly deserve.
Under the Labour government’s plans, train services are being nationalised. I have little confidence such a change will improve things but I will talk to the companies and work constructively with them to try and help secure more reliable, high-quality train service for passengers.
