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Rail Services (West Kent)

My right hon. Friend is right to describe the strength of feeling of his constituents about those services. His constituents know how assiduous he is in holding those responsible to account. I am delighted that he has come to support us today. When I asked Southeastern about the performance of the Hastings line after the recent cold weather, I was surprised to be told:""We do not make this data public, as our obligations for performance are across mainline and metro services rather than on individual lines."" That strikes me as a worrying argument. The concern of those of my constituents who use the Hastings line is the Hastings line. It matters not that the service of the new High Speed 1 line might be performing well, as they do not use it. They are galled enough at having to pay for the service, let alone to realise that the possibility of compensation for poor performance is excluded because of an averaging out across the whole region. People use a particular service. It is almost as if someone bought a TV that broke down, but when they asked for a refund from the store they were told that one was not available because the washing machines were working. It is a ridiculous way of proceeding. I am fortunate in my constituency in having an excellent local rail travellers group. It has investigated the performance of the Hastings line. It estimates that in the first three weeks of February at least eight trains were cancelled, 33 trains were delayed due to asset failure and 115 trains were disrupted because of absent train crews and other operational reasons. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that there is a particular problem on that line. Many of my constituents are well aware of some of the causes. One constituent e-mailed me, saying:""Main recurring problem (on the evening service I catch it happens at least 3 days every week) is that conductor gets stuck on a late incoming train and as a result the train which he is next supposed to be the conductor on is delayed waiting for him to come in—essentially the problem is that there is virtually no 'turnaround' time for conductors on some services; the train crew know that and tell passengers that they are trying to get Southeastern management to do something about it—so far with no joy."" The diagnosis—knowing what contributes to the problems—is well understood and should be addressed. We have little time for this debate. I would like to say more about some of the other concerns that affect my constituents and those of my right hon. Friend. I could speak of the calamitous withdrawal of the service from Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells to Gatwick airport. At a time when we want to take cars off the roads, reducing a direct connection from one of the counties that supplies most passengers to Gatwick seems to fly in the face of environmental and transport logic. I could talk about the great anxiety of passengers who use stations south of Tunbridge Wells about proposed changes to the route into Cannon Street. I could mention this year's 10 per cent. increase in parking charges; at a time when inflation has been negative, it seems to be a way of exacting more and more money for less and less of a service. With your permission, Sir Nicholas, I wish to make three requests of the Minister. I am grateful for his attendance here today. I hope that he will respond to these requests towards the beginning of his speech, so that we have the chance to button them down. The first is on data. During the short period before Parliament rises, will the Minister ensure that I am given the performance data to date for the Hastings line between Tunbridge Wells, High Brooms, Tonbridge and London? Those data exist. We know that Southeastern has the data, but I believe that they should be made public so that everyone knows about that line's performance. The second request is this. If the data show that the performance of the line has been below the threshold where discounts on season tickets are usually triggered, will the Minister consider requiring, as an exceptional measure, the relevant compensation to be paid to passengers on that line for the disruption that they have suffered, recognising that they have suffered it on that line and that other lines are not relevant? Thirdly, I understand that there are negotiations with Network Rail for Southeastern to be compensated for some of the winter's disruption. It seems to be a matter of natural justice that some of that compensation should go to the passengers who bore the brunt of the disruption. Will the Minister assure the House that he will put pressure on those companies to ensure that my constituents are compensated from whatever Southeastern receives? I make a final plea to the Minister. Will he summon Southeastern's senior management, and ask them to explain why my constituents, and those of my right hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Sir John Stanley) and of colleagues to the south of our constituencies, have had to endure such appalling service from a company that we were used to thinking of as one of the better and more progressive train operating companies? I can put it no better than a constituent of mine, who sent me a copy of his letter to Southeastern. He wrote:""We currently have to use you to get to work. Wouldn't it be nice if we wanted to use you to get to work?""