Caroline's news

First Capital Connect admitted last week that the Thameslink service has been “appalling” and “totally inadequate” at a meeting with Chris Nicholson, the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Streatham and GLA Transport Committee chair, Caroline Pidgeon.

Chris Nicholson asked for the meeting as disruptions on First Capital Connect’s service worsened over the last months. First Capital Connect’s Larry Heyman apologised for the reduced timetable, the inability of trains to run in the snow and incorrect information provided to customers. He acknowledged that some train motors struggled to cope with the snow and said that these would be replaced by next month.

Figures released today showed that just 62.8% of Thameslink trains ran less than 5 mins late in the period between 13 December 2009 to 9 January 2010. In the same period, 11.7% of all services were cancelled.
FCC trains were running late again today on the Bedford to Brighton line and some consisted of just four carriages instead of the normal eight. Other trains stopped short of their advertised destination or did not stop at all stops.

The Evening Standard has a report on the London Assembly Transport Committee's investigation into the poor performance of Southeastern rail service during the recent severe weather.

Caroline Pidgeon is quoted in the article:

Questions have to be asked how freight trains can run and yet passenger ones can't on the same lines.

Passengers need to be compensated and serious questions have to be asked about Southeastern's management during this snowy weather.

The full article can be read here.

Lewisham Lib Dems have also launched a petition calling for Southeastern to reimburse Network Rail with 3 days' worth of its public subsidy. This would provide £1.1m for improvements to stations served by Southeastern.

You can sign the petition here.

Caroline Pidgeon AM, on behalf of the London Assembly Liberal Democrat group, and London Lib Dem Transport spokesperson Tom Brake MP, has submitted a formal response to the Mayor's draft Transport Strategy.

While welcoming some of the Mayor's proposals, the Lib Dems see several areas where the strategy is in need of improvement:

The document contains welcome and useful proposals, some of which need strengthening. Regrettably, important issues that need to be addressed are neglected or omitted.

There are contradictions in the document – measures to promote walking and cycling sit uncomfortably with plans to smooth traffic flow and an absence of plans for pedestrian precincts. The document lacks interim measures of success for the Mayor’s projects: this will make it very difficult for Londoners to hold him to account. To secure new infrastructure investment takes many years of hard work and campaigning. If valuable projects are excluded on the grounds that funding is not currently available, they will never be delivered.

The London Assembly has called on the Mayor to persuade the Government to meet its original commitment to contribute funds to London boroughs to help them meet the costs of extending off-peak free bus travel to people who do not live in London.

A motion agreed today deplored the government's decision to halve this contribution, and urged the Mayor to put pressure on the government to abandon their U-turn and honour the agreement they originally made.

Caroline Pidgeon has joined Streatham Liberal Democrats in calling for First Capital Connect (FCC) to improve its service for users of Thameslink from Streatham and Tulse Hill stations or lose its franchise. Their call comes in the light of continued cancellation of trains, delays and timetable restrictions which have been going on for months but have worsened since Christmas.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Streatham Chris Nicholson said,
"The service being provided is completely unacceptable. It is particularly difficult for commuters have to wait ages for trains or buses in this freezing weather. Caroline Pidgeon and I are seeking an urgent meeting with First Capital Connect. Unless we get satisfactory answers to what is being done to restore a full service I will be asking the Department for Transport to consider stripping FCC of its franchise."

Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat Chair of the Greater London Assembly Transport Committee added,
"I am getting reports all along the Thameslink line of the hardship that this is causing commuters. First Capital Connect must improve, and improve quickly!"