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The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser.

7 May 2009

For the past decade our railways have been recovering from the botched-up privatisation and mismanagement that occurred under the last government aided and abetted by Railtrack – but that recovery is now blossoming into a great success story.

There are now more passengers using our trains than at any time since the Second World War – over a billion last year alone and we have taken decisive action to remedy the failings of privatisation and put in place a stable structure for the long-term.

In our area those draughty old-fashioned slam door trains which were still serving Dover in the nineties have all been replaced by modern comfortable rolling stock. Our stations are being refurbished and our new high speed rail services from Dover to London will be running into St Pancras by the end of the year. The full scheduled service is due to start on the 13th December but Southeastern Trains are expected to start a limited high speed rail service as early as next month. But more of that later.

Across the whole of the network we are investing over £20bn in enhanced rail capacity and new and improved trains, we have given a commitment to no line closures and work has just started on the £16bn Crossrail project.

Over 20,000 trains are running across the rail network every day after longer, faster trains were introduced under a new timetable specified by the Department for Transport last year and the volumes of passenger trains run on the National Rail network are 20% higher than ten years ago, and 55% more than in 1979.

A third of a billion pounds has been invested to prepare for the introduction of the Intercity Express trains and implement the next generation signalling but progress on increasing the shift of freight from road to rail has been disappointing and that’s why we are committing some £200m for a new Strategic Freight Network.

We have started work on planning for new high speed rail services to the West Midlands, the north of England and Scotland and we have delivered – to time and on budget – the UK’s first high speed railway line known as High Speed One. Which brings me back to our domestic high speed trains.

At the moment, Dover’s new Javelin trains to St Pancras will stop at Folkestone Central, Folkestone West, Ashford and Stratford with the whole journey taking just over an hour but with a little tweaking of the time table we could get it down to just under an hour – which could make all the difference. The marketing value of describing Dover as “Less than a hour away from the heart of London” would be enormous and “one hour travel time” has always been a bench mark for tolerable commuting.

It’s glaringly obvious what needs to be done – by dropping one or other of the two Folkestone stops from the time table both Dover and Folkestone would come within the psychologically important “one hour” threshold. After all they are only a two minute train ride apart – and that’s using the slow train.