The ongoing crisis with Southern Rail is affecting many residents in Fareham who use Swanwick, Fareham or Portchester stations.
I have heard from too many people who been severely affected by this chaos: arriving late for work, putting their jobs at risk; being delayed in getting home after working hard, putting strain on family relationships; and losing money and time due to the high number of sudden cancellations. Southern Rail's performance is at an all-time low: inexcusably appalling.
I spoke in a Westminster Hall debate about this subject, raising the effect of strike action and poor management on Fareham residents, but the statistics paint a stark picture: according to Transport Focus, which conducts authoritative surveys of passenger satisfaction, 82% of passengers were satisfied with Southern Rail in autumn 2010. By spring 2015, over a quarter of passengers are dissatisfied. That makes Southern officially the worst franchise in the country. Punctuality, according to the Office of Rail and Road, has significantly deteriorated over the last 10 years: this is an important point as it means that neither Southern Rail or Network Rail can properly lay the blame on the London Bridge improvements.
The one thing passengers need and expect is a reliable train service to get them to their destinations, especially if they have flights to catch or going to and from work. Another thing they want is decent compensation. Sadly, the current compensation regime is insufficient. Next, overcrowding and cleanliness are problems with these trains. Lastly, passengers want timely information from Southern when there are problems.
Despite £m of investment in new signalling across the service and the £bn of government support and many hard-working staff, people are absolutely fed up with the company's performance and they are fed up with excuses. We want real action to deliver a better service and I will keep fighting for Fareham commuters until that is a reality.