Wokingham’s MP is calling for more evening trains to Wokingham after it was brought back into public ownership.
South Western Railway (SWR), which has recently been renationalised, runs services between London Waterloo and Reading, stopping at Bracknell and Wokingham.
However, trains run only up to Bracknell every 30 minutes after 9pm on weeknights, compared with further stops Wokingham and Reading every hour.
MP Clive Jones has asked for this timetable to be revised since SWR came back into public ownership last month.
The Labour government promised a ‘new dawn for rail’ as it plans to bring all train companies into public control and eventually create Great British Railways.
Minister of State for Rail Lord Hendy told Mr Jones he had asked for a review of the SWR timetable. This would ‘in particular look at the case for reinstating the half hourly service west of Bracknell in the evenings’, a letter to the MP read.
This review would take place after a new fleet of Class 701 Arterio trains are introduced onto the service, Lord Hendy added.
These trains will add capacity, offer real time information and fully accessible toilets between London Waterloo and Reading. Some of the fleet have already entered the service.
Mr Jones told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he welcomed ‘this long-overdue confirmation that more frequent services could be coming down the track’ and promised to ‘hold SWR’s feet to the fire’.
He added that Wokingham residents are ‘fed up with a patchy service that lacks toilets, has poor Wi-fi connectivity and are unreliable’.
The renationalisation of SWR means trains running between Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham and Ascot are now in public ownership. The operator runs more than 1,500 services per weekday across south west London and the South of England.
The Labour government said bringing trains back into public ownership will result in them meeting ‘tough performance standards’ and will work to bring back public trust.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said trains would be ‘run by the public, for the public’.
But Ms Alexander added that while she ‘would love to be able’ to promise lower fares, it cannot be guaranteed.
