17/09/10 - Swindon Advertiser Weekly Article

The quality of the rail service is a vital issue for many constituents in Swindon who commute to cities and towns between London, Bristol and South Wales, as well as the many leisure users who use the railway for holidays, shopping trips and visits to family and friends.   This week I had an extremely productive meeting with Mark Hopwood and Sue Evans from First Great Western, along with my fellow Swindon MP Robert Buckland.

We were able to cover a large number of issues which are of concern to people who regularly use the train service from Swindon.  These included: the potential electrification of the railway line from London to Swindon; the replacement of old diesel engines with new ones; how First Great Western can provide more capacity on trains at peak hours, particularly in standard class; whether more car parking could be provided at Swindon station in a partnership between the Council and First Great Western; and, of course, the thorny issue of rail fares.

We are impressed that Mark Hopwood, the Chief Executive of First Great Western and his team have made real strides in improving the punctuality of the service, compared to a few years ago.  Of course there will always be occasional problems, and if you’ve had a delayed journey recently you may not believe that things really are getting better!  They told us that further improvements to Reading station and the signalling in that area should allow for greater capacity and a better, more reliable service between Swindon and London.

One of the issues that we particularly focused on was how First Great Western can improve the capacity on trains at peak hours, as we know that not getting a seat on a train is a major frustration.  First Great Western has ideas for which we have offered our support, in particular through investment and realigning existing rolling stock.

We also expressed residents’ concerns over the cost of rail fares, in particular the well-known relatively high cost of tickets between Swindon and London.  Robert and I pressed them to end the unfair position that Swindon users appear to pay a premium.  This must be addressed not only for existing travellers, but also to help us as a town to attract new business investment.  This was acknowledged and we are assured they will explore ways to address this.  In the meantime, the advice remains to book in advance wherever possible – it’s always cheaper than buying a ticket on the day.

Rail travel is critical to Swindon, so we will continue to meet regularly and do what we can to push for and support continued improvements to our local service.