Guildford MP Meets Railway Director To Discuss Ongoing Issues

Published on: 5 Feb, 2018
Updated on: 7 Feb, 2018

Rt Hon Anne Milton MP

Anne Milton MP met Andy Mellors, South Western Railway’s managing director, last Tuesday (January 30) to discuss various concerns constituents have raised about the local rail services, including delays and a lack of seating capacity.

Ms Milton said: “Since the new franchise came in, there has been a feeling that a great deal more could be done to improve customer experiences.”

Some of the improvements SWR raised at the meeting were:

100 additional carriages added to some of the busiest  routes since December. This has been made possible after the extensive August  Waterloo upgrade works which provided longer platforms;
some trains have been lengthened to 10 or 12 carriages.

The logo for the new franchisee
South Western Railways

Among the commitments made were:

by the end of the year, the former Waterloo International Terminal  will reopen for domestic use and by December 2020, SWR will add 52,000  extra seats in to or out of Waterloo at peak times
 a new half-hourly Guildford – Farnham services are being proposed as part  of the December 2018 timetable consultation
  a £45m refurbishment and retractioning of 18 Class 442 electric multiple-units for use on fast London Waterloo – Portsmouth services, from December 2018. The December timetable will also see an  increase to four direct trains per hour from Portsmouth to Waterloo.
  A £50m refurbishment to the existing 172-strong Class 444 and Class 450 Desiro fleet of trains is underway, resulting in additional Standard class seating.
  90 new state of the art Aventra trains (or 750 new carriages) will be introduced by the end of 2019 at a cost of £895M, to deliver significant capacity increase at peak times into and out of London and improve the customer experience for passengers.

Andy Mellors said: “It was good to meet Anne and listen to constituents’ concerns. We know we have much to do but we have exciting plans in terms of new trains and increased capacity and are working hard with our partners Network Rail to improve performance.”

Anne Milton who uses Guildford to London railway services regularly to attend parliament, added: “Many of my constituents have raised concerns about their experiences with South Western Railway, and it was good to be able to raise these issues face to face. I hope to see significant progress soon and will be watching developments closely. I will not stop the fight for better train services for Guildford – real change is long overdue.

“I am always keen to hear from local people and would encourage any constituents who have any concerns or comments about the rail service to get in touch with me.”