South East Trains And Publicly Provided Passenger Rail Services

EDM number 816 in 2003-04, proposed by John Austin on 11/03/2004.

That this House welcomes the decision in 2003 to terminate Connex's operation of the South Eastern railway franchise and to bring the service back into the public sector; notes that this was the first, and hopefully not last, passenger service to be brought back into public ownership since privatisation; further notes the publication by the SRA of their National Rail Trends document which includes train punctuality figures for October to December 2003 which show that the punctuality rate on South Eastern Trains was 74.6 per cent. compared with 65.7 per cent. for the equivalent quarter in 2002 when the franchise was run by the private sector; congratulates South Eastern Trains on this improvement which represents the best improvement across all 10 London and South East train operators; welcomes the improvement to the service that the public sector has begun to deliver; and urges the Government to retain the South Eastern franchise in the public sector to help promote an integrated public railway system and ensure a better deal for the passenger and taxpayer.

This motion has been signed by a total of 21 MPs.