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First Capital Connect

Thank you, Ms Walley. It is a delight to serve under your chairmanship today in this important debate on our rail services. In October last year—this will come as no surprise to anybody who has been watching the news—drivers on the First Capital Connect Thameslink route, which serves my constituency and those of many other hon. Members here today, began industrial action. A virtual ban on overtime and rest-day working was imposed due to a dispute over pay. Since then, that action has been causing intense disruption and frustration for hundreds of thousands of commuters who use the route. In early November, the company informed me that it would be introducing a new timetable that offered only 50 per cent. of the services that usually ran on that busy commuter route. It was not exactly a formal notification. I rang the company one evening and said, "Excuse me, this situation is getting so bad that I need to talk about it." The reply was, "Don't worry. It's going to improve tomorrow and there will be a much more reliable service". I said, "Oh good. How is that going to occur?" and the reply was, "We have cut the train service in half and we can guarantee that that half will be delivered." At that point, I decided that a point desperately needed to be raised about the matter on the Floor of the House.