Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Redhill services to improve Local MP welcomes decision on Gatwick Express

The Department of Transport today published their response to the consultation on the future of the Gatwick Express – the Brighton Main Line Utilisation Strategy. In a new formulation, not published in the original consultation, Redhill will have an additional two services at the morning and evening rush hour. There was strong local opposition to those options which would have seen Redhill’s services diminished both from the MP for Reigate, Crispin Blunt, and from Reigate and Banstead Borough Council. The new timetable will also see the retention of a dedicated Gatwick Service.

Speaking this morning Crispin Blunt said:

“This is the best result for commuters who travel from Redhill, Merstham and Coulsdon. They will have four new services at peak times and will not have to share busy trains with holiday-makers travelling from Gatwick into London. I always said that any option which degraded the Redhill service was unacceptable and I am delighted that the Government has listened to the concerns of local people.”

However, Crispin Blunt questioned the validity of the consultation exercise. He went on to ask why the option settled on was not in the original consultation paper:

“Commuters in Redhill have spent the last few months wondering if the service they rely on was to be significantly reduced. Now it turns out they need not have worried after all. I have always recognised that there is a clear case for a dedicated service from Gatwick into London. However that service must not be at the expense of the thousands of commuters who use Redhill. A solution which increases services for Redhill without scrapping the Gatwick Express is clearly the best one – and yet the Government had not bothered to plan for it. If there was an answer all along why was it not presented earlier? My relief that the service has been saved is tempered by the feeling that my constituents have been worrying unnecessarily.”