Surrey leader’s Southern plea

Surrey County Council’s leader has made a plea for the disruption on Southern’s network to be tackled urgently.

David Hodge (pictured below right), who is a regular passenger on Southern trains, has called for all those involved to work together to find a swift solution.

He said: “As a Southern passenger myself, I fully understand the anger being vented by Surrey’s passengers and businesses. Like them, I have suffered travel misery over the past few weeks and this situation simply can’t continue – all those involved need to put their heads together to get services back on track.

“Not only is it causing distress on the daily commute for workers and the many thousands of residents who rely on the network for essential journeys, it is hurting our businesses and damaging the powerhouse economies of Surrey, London and the South East.

“Even without these painful delays and cancellations in Surrey, capacity needs boosting and once order is restored to the network we’ll push for this as part of our efforts to support passengers and businesses that also include pressing for the North Downs Line to be fully electrified and ensuring the county gets the maximum benefit from Crossrail 2.”