Murrison Disappointed By Harris Response To Plea For Better Services

[whole diary]

[Lee]

Westbury MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) Dr Andrew Murrison says he is disappointed by the response of the Rail Minister Tom Harris to his plea for better Bristol-Waterloo services (link below.)
http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/latestheadlines/display.var.2236614.0.mp_upset_by_train_plea_response.php

In his letter, the minister commits to the current level of service but seemed lukewarm on the prospects of the more frequent service that Mr Murrison is pressing for.

Mr Harris said in his letter:

"Given the need to deliver the hourly Exeter service from December 2009 and the continued need to balance this with provision of sufficient capacity for Yeovil/Salisbury from London flows in the am and pm peaks, the ability to provide any extra commercial services from Waterloo to Bristol via Salisbury and Westbury may be quite limited."

Mr Murrison said:

"It seems that any improvement in the service will be dependent on commercial viability and competing network priorities.

"Ministers and Network Rail must do more to increase capacity without which it seems unlikely that we will see much improvement on the direct service via Salisbury or the Trans-Wilts' route."