I am very concerned about the terrible level of service provided by Southern Rail.

I met last week with the Rail Minister, Claire Perry, to raise these serious concerns.

These include overcrowding, station skipping, such as at Coulsdon South, and the persistent lack of punctuality.

The quality of the service has been totally unacceptable for some time now.

I called on the Minister to personally hold weekly performance reviews with Southern Railway and Network Rail to drive improvement.

I have also called for a review into the compensation scheme for commuters to make it much easier to access and to better reflect the reality of daily experience.

It was noted by many commuters that trains were arriving one or two minutes before the threshold for the “delay repay” compensation, which is unfair.

I have now received a written response from the Minister, and she confirmed she will be hosting weekly meetings of a task force with officials from the Department for Transport, National Rail and the heads of other train operating companies to urgently fix these problems.

I will continue to put pressure on Southern Rail and the Rail Minister to ensure the rapid delivery of the improvements that are desperately needed.

CHRIS PHILP MP
Croydon South