Commuter campaigns

Cheaper local rail fares and the re-zoning of Kingston and Surbiton stations from zone 6 to zone 5 are longstanding campaigns of mine.

Why? Because in January 2007, some local tickets went up by over 35% when they brought in “zonal fares” – with a fear of worse to come for season tickets.

So what’s been happening on these commuter campaigns?

The good news is we have stopped, at least for now, the massive hikes in season tickets and other local fares that were threatened.

Yet the campaign to re-zone Kingston and Surbiton – our ultimate guarantee of fairer fares - is taking much longer than hoped.

Having signed up Boris Johnson to our cause before he was elected, I had expected more rapid progress but so far he’s not produced results.

That’s why earlier this year I refocused my attention on the Department of Transport [DoT], and met and corresponded with Lord Adonis, the Government’s transport supremo, and senior DoT officials.

Lord Adonis has now instructed his officials and South West Trains “to establish what would be the full impact of rezoning and to advise me of their findings as soon as is practicable.”

This is an important advance. Whilst success is far from guaranteed, it shows we are getting a serious hearing and that our case cannot easily be dismissed.

Our evidence to DoT shows that local commuters would save £1.5 million a year – or, in other words, we are paying £1.5 million too much! We have shown how SWT could recoup this by minor adjustments spread across the network.

For more details on my recent work on re-zoning, have a look at my campaign page.