South West Railways All-Party Parliamentary Group
James Sunderland, MP for the Bracknell Constituency has achieved an unprecedented compensation package for commuters and season ticket holders impacted by strike action, following pressure from Parliament last week.
The MP for Bracknell and Vice Chairman of the newly-formed All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the South Western Railway (SWR) area, which met last Tuesday, has welcomed today’s announcement. It comes just one week after a Parliamentary meeting chaired by Chris Loder MP for West Dorset and attended by Chris Heaton-Harris (Minister of State for Transport), Mark Hopwood (SWR Managing Director) and directors of Network Rail to discuss specific issues of performance, franchising and strikes.
“This is Parliament working and showing that when we hold organisations and Government to account, we can achieve more and deliver for constituents. I’m delighted that through the APPG, we have been able to secure a better deal for those passengers who were so badly affected by these strikes. However, we will continue to push for full recompense for those passengers who were worst hit by a full month of strike action and received no train service at all’’.
Today’s announcement by SWR means the cost of rail travel for up to five days will be paid as compensation and will be offered to season ticket holders and daily ticket holders who were worst affected during the strike.
James says: “This is Parliament working and showing that when we hold organisations and Government to account, we can achieve more and deliver for constituents. I’m delighted that through the APPG, we have been able to secure a better deal for those passengers who were so badly affected by these strikes. However, we will continue to push for full recompense for those passengers who were worst hit by a full month of strike action and received no train service at all’’.