Difficult Month Ahead For Esher And Walton Commuters
A month of planned railway strikes through December is an unwelcome early Christmas present for the commuters and residents of Esher and Walton.
While the RMT and South Western Railway blame each other for a failure to avoid industrial action, it is the passengers who suffer. The public are being forced to put up with both an appalling service and steep rail fares
Monica Harding is urging the two sides to not let the strike impasse continue: if they cannot reach an agreement, both should commit to resolving their differences through independent mediation and arbitration. They should not be holding local people to ransom.
Alongside Ed Davey and five other local Liberal Democrat candidates, Monica is campaigning to get the two sides back to the negotiating table to prevent the strikes. “We have written to both demanding a return to talks, to call off the strikes. We’re urging people to sign our petition to support the campaign,” she says. Find the petition here.
Freeze Fare Increases For Five Years
As well as trying to prevent the disruptive strikes, Monica and the Liberal Democrats are campaigning against increasing rail fares. The annual increase in rail fares, set against an ever-worsening service in recent years, has only added to passenger frustration.
Freezing rail fare increases is a key promise in the Liberal Democrat manifesto. This is great news for the commuters of Esher and Walton as it would result in savings of up to £1200 over the next five years. The Lib Dems will cancel the planned rise at the end of December 2019, keeping fares at their current level. Over the next five years, passengers will save from £800 up to £1200, depending on which station they travel from in the constituency.
The rail revolution
We need a strong, customer-first focus that will include investment in stations, lines and new trains. The Liberal Democrats will hold the rail companies to account. The Lib Dems will create a Railways Agency to oversee the operations, removing the Department for Transport from day-to-day decision-making. This means they can be more proactive in sanctioning and sacking failing operators, while improving the experience and facilities for all.
Monica adds:
“Under the Tories, Esher and Walton commuters have been catastrophically let down. People are paying way over the odds for what has often been an appalling service and fixing this is high on their list of priorities. Yet Dominic Raab has done little to represent them and even his voting record shows he has consistently voted against slowing the rises to rail fares.
Local Liberal Democrat MPs Ed Davey and Vince Cable forced an adjournment debate on SouthWestern Railway in December 2018: Dominic Raab failed to show up. In fact, a search on Hansard suggests he hasn’t raised the issue of our rail service in Parliament for five years.
We can do better than this. A vote for me is a vote to put commuters first.”