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Debate on Railways

House of Commons

9 March 2009

Official Report (Hansard) column 112

Mr. Simon Burns (West Chelmsford) (Con): I welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate, because Chelmsford is a significant commuter town for journeys down to London. If one looks on the positive side, one can see that some significant improvements have been made over the past 20 years to the infrastructure and to the services provided to my constituents: in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a multi-million pound redevelopment and enhancement of Liverpool Street station took place; during the 1990s Chelmsford station was rebuilt and significantly improved; and, in addition, improvements have been made to the rolling stock. I recall that 20 years ago one could travel from Chelmsford to Liverpool Street during the day and although it might have been bright and sunny outside, the carriage windows were so dirty that one would have imagined it was late evening. That is a thing of the past, and we have seen real and significant improvements and investment.

There are, however, downsides that my constituents have to put up with day in, day out, the first of which is significant overcrowding on the trains. Not only is it a safety problem but, to my mind, it is unacceptable that having paid through the nose through the fare structure for the service down to Liverpool Street, they all too often cannot find a seat during the rush hours in the morning and in the late afternoon and early evening. My solution would be to have longer trains with more carriages during that period to take the overcrowding and to ameliorate that problem. Too little is being done at the moment to solve the problem.

The other issue of grave concern is rail fares. Because commuters are a captive audience it seems that there are significant increases in fares over and above the rate of inflation, so that the price of an annual season ticket for people going down to London to work makes up an exorbitant part of their salaries. Something has to be done to ensure that people get a fair deal and value for money and that they do not have to pay through the nose, year in, year out. It will be extremely interesting at the back end of this year and the beginning of next year to see what the annual increase in fares will be given the fact that the retail prices index, as opposed to the consumer prices index, is now at 0.1 per cent. on an annual basis—the first time that we have had that situation in living memory and beyond. The regulator and the powers that be that set the fares have to think again in this unusual time of extremely low inflation to ensure that hard-pressed commuters are not penalised once more and that they do not have to pay through the nose.

The other issue that I want to raise tonight is the fact that, on environmental grounds, it would be sensible to build a new station on the outskirts of Chelmsford, somewhere between north Springfield and Boreham, to stop all those motorists who travel into Chelmsford to get the train into London when they do not live in Chelmsford. They come from the Dengie peninsula and from areas north of Chelmsford, up near Braintree and Witham and beyond. If they could go to a station there, that would relieve the traffic in the centre of the town and would provide a steadier and more responsible way of people getting on to and alighting from trains. That proposal is in the Chelmsford borough council structure plan. We can argue about and discuss exactly where a new station should be, but I welcome the fact that it is in the plans and that it is an accepted fact that it should come to pass.

Sir Peter Soulsby: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Mr. Burns: I will not, because I do not have enough time.

I only hope that the current economic situation will not cause a dream that is about to be realised to be postponed through a lack of finance.

I do not want to take any longer, as I know that a number of other hon. Members want to take part in the debate.

Sir Peter Soulsby: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Mr. Burns: No, I will not, for the very reason I have just given.

I urge the Government to use their influence to ensure that next year, when fares increase, commuters are not used as a whipping boy because they are a captive market. They should not have to suffer, yet again, a significant increase in the fares that they have to pay without a significant improvement in the quality of the service. Severe disruptions happen too often. Sometimes, to be fair to the rail provider, those disruptions are not due to the provider but to vandalism, but we need to ensure that the overall service improves. We need to ensure that the work on the overhead electrification cables, which involves investment to replace infrastructure that is 20 years-plus old and that is out of date, is enhanced and moved along the line towards Chelmsford and beyond to Colchester more quickly and that the plans for the timetable ensure that we can all benefit from those improvements.