Train Services (Maidenhead and Twyford)

I do share that concern and I know that the hon. Lady has been fighting on behalf of her constituents in Slough who suffer from the same problems as my constituents. It is appalling that if our constituents were chickens, cows or pigs, there would be rules about how many could be in a carriage at a time. Because they are people, there are no such rules. Sadly, the Office of Rail Regulation, which now has responsibility for health and safety on the railways, is doing nothing about the chronic overcrowding, which is not only miserable for those travelling in those circumstances, but downright dangerous, as many of my constituents have pointed out. Jonathan Freeland continues:"““The consequence is that my wife will be going onto maternity leave earlier than would otherwise be the case—travel being the only reason.””" Richard Ashcroft has emailed me to say:"““What I object to strongly is the WILFUL DESTRUCTION of previously existing services to Maidenhead commuters.””" Janice Trounson writes:"““It is sad, when I look back over the 8 years that I have lived in Maidenhead, to see the service that was previously ‘enjoyed’ rapidly being eroded even further with each and every timetable change.””" What is sad is not only the problems caused by the timetable change, but the attitude of the rail company, which causes extra frustration for commuters. They email the company only to be told not to worry, it is just teething problems and it will all bed down in due course. Sometimes the train company does not seem to know what is happening. I had an email only yesterday from Jo Hulme who said that"““whilst waiting at Twyford for the 07:42 Oxford bound service we were treated to the platform announcement ‘this is a platform announcement. The computers are down and we can’t tell where the trains are’.””" That is symptomatic of the attitude that many of my constituents report from FGW. Sam Steele emailed me yesterday to say that he had asked FGW:"““Can you please take the time to truly listen to your passengers…This is not a PR exercise, it is a real problem for your passengers who have to live with these problems on a day to day basis.””" He goes on to say that people obviously have to be at work at certain times, and that"““just because FGW decide to change their train timetable doesn’t mean our bosses will suddenly think it’s OK for us to roll into work 15-20 minutes late. We all have commitments, and FGW’s commitment is to its passengers.””" The problem was summed up best by a gentleman whose name I shall not mention, as he is employed by FGW as a train driver. In his email, he states that"““the impression I get is that they are only interested in their HST long distance services and they have no idea how to organise and run a commuter based service…I have been on the railway 28 years, and the attitude of First Group towards anything they don’t agree with is that it’s lump it or like it.””" That is what my constituents are experiencing with their train service. They have complained but are not getting the responses that they need from the company. That is not to say that FGW has not made some changes. On the contrary, it suddenly announced that changes would be made from Monday of this week. I have mentioned already last year’s petition of 2,500 signatures, and the key change that it secured was the introduction of the 0726 from Twyford, which stopped at Maidenhead and then went straight to Paddington. The train was empty at Twyford, so people could get seats, which were still available at Maidenhead. However, as part of the most recent ““improvements”” made by FGW, passengers are now allowed to get on the train at Oxford, and the result is that my constituents in Maidenhead find it harder to join the service. That is therefore no improvement at all. I turn now to the problem of overcrowding. The hon. Member for Slough commented on it earlier, but FGW found a way around it. Last March, the Evening Standard reported that the 1806 Paddington to Oxford service that called at my constituency was the sixth most overcrowded in the country. However, it no longer features in the list—FGW has abolished it and it does not run any more. That is one way to get rid of the overcrowding problem, but the consequence is that other services are more overcrowded than they were before. That is all the more bizarre, given that the franchise agreement between the Department of Transport and the rail companies requires each company to allocate rolling stock resources"““in such as manner as to reconcile its available capacity to passenger demand…so that instances of trains operating with passengers in excess of capacity are kept to a minimum.””" However, that is not happening with the FGW franchise that serves the stations in my constituency. The train service for my constituents is appalling, and it has deteriorated significantly from what it was in the past. I have talked about FGW, but the Government cannot exonerate themselves of all blame, as FGW bid for the franchise against the timetable specification that the Government set out. In that specification, the Government in their wisdom included the provision that trains running on the single-track service between Twyford and Henley, via Wargrave and Shiplake, did not have to stop at all stations. Given that the Government take that sort of attitude to train services, it is perhaps little wonder that we have the current problems. Although the timetable specification set by the Government was not good enough, I do not believe that FGW fought hard enough to improve it in the interests of my constituents in Maidenhead and Twyford. Neither do I believe that FGW is able to run a commuter service that is capable of satisfying my constituents. I look forward to the Minister’s response. I hope that he will give me some positive news, and say that the Government will take action against FGW in respect of its franchise on the part of the line about which I am concerned. I hope too that they will act to ensure that my constituents see immediate improvements, rather than years of a deteriorating service. They need a decent train service, with good numbers of fast and semi-fast trains that are not constantly delayed or cancelled. In addition, overcrowding needs to be reduced so that passengers can get to work in reasonable comfort. In that way, they will be able to deliver the economic value for the country that is their objective.