Forum topic: Rail services through PG: New timetable brings no improvements to train frequencies

Some fourteen months after services on the Great Northern "Metro" services were reduced by around 50 per cent and with no indication that they will ever be restored to fomer levels, a call by London Assembly members to devolve suburban rail services to Transport for London has been rejected by the transport ministry with an assurance that the government is "committed... to ensure suburban rail services are working at their best for passengers, supporting housing, economic growth and the environment".

A motion in favour of TfL taking over the services was supported by Labour, Green and LibDem AMs but opposed by Conservatives. One Tory AM argued that Sadiq Khan's stewardship of TfL has been so poor that no responsible government would consider devolving control of suburban rail while he is mayor.

During the debate the assembly member for Enfield and Haringey, Joanne McCartney, highlighted the reduction in services on the Great Northern lines (though she actually understated it - the previous service was four trains an hour, not three), saying it was "not acceptable" and was causing overcrowding. This follows her previous unsuccessful request to Govia Thameslink Railway to increase services, made in August 2021.

Apart from the addition of a few more peak-hour services, we seem to stuck with two trains an hour for the foreseeable future, and recently press reports have been suggesting that now that the government has taken on responsibility for deciding on train frequencies, it is planning to make more cuts across the national rail network, not to restore services. All this at a time when the climate crisis means that a rapid shift away from private cars towards electric rail services is essential, and in contrast to the recent announcement by the German government of a €49 a month season ticket covering public transport throughout the country.

Keeping suburban services "out of the clutches of a Labour mayor"

This is not the first time that the government has rejected calls to devolve our line and other suburban services to TfL on the grounds that they should not fall under the control of a politician who is a member of the Labour Party. When, in 2016, then mayor Boris Johnson wrote to the transport secretary requesting that suburban services be devolved to him, Chris Grayling (remember him?) rejected the request, writing that "I would like to keep suburban rail services out of the clutches of any future Labour mayor".

I find this line of reasoning both then and now incompatible with the elementary principles of democracy and worthy of Donald Trump. It seems tantamount to saying that "the wrong party won the elections so the results don't count".

To add insult to injury, up until 2020 when the pandemic drastically reduced fares income and temporary government support became essential, Sadiq Khan had to run TfL services without the government subsidy that Boris Johnson enjoyed during his mayoralty but agreed to have taken away (it seems that in 2015 he was already losing interest in being mayor and had bigger fish to fry).

For more about the debate and statements following it, see this report on the Enfield Dispatch website.