Labour Nationalises Thameslink and cuts services to Mill Hill Broadway

There are times in my life when I wonder why I bother? Last week, our Labour MP David Pinto-Duschinsky posted this on Facebook "I’ve just met with Govia Thameslink (GTR) at Mill Hill Broadway Station to raise constituents’ concerns about the timetable changes they are bringing in. The new timetable will see the frequency of off peak trains reduced. GTR say it will improve service reliability but I’m not happy with the changes, nor with the fact the residents were not consulted before they were made. I pushed them pretty hard in the meeting. It’s not clear I can get them amended, but I’ll continue to push for residents’ voices to be listened to" 

I have taken a keen interest in the running of Thameslink for most of my adult life. I commuted on the line every day for 37 years. When I started, they were still running a diesel service. That became the BedPan line. Then Thameslink opened up and trains started running south of the river. John Major privatised the railways, which proved to be a disaster. Under British Rail, Mill Hill had eight trains an hour at peak times. A succession of private operators never achieved this. Labour quite rightly pointed to the shambolic way many private operators run the railway, and came up with a cunning scheme to renationalise the network. GTR, the company that ran the service was recently taken back into public ownership. I had assumed that this would see more investment and better services as profits which were going to private shareholders were reinvested back into the network. It seems that I was wrong. The new owners, answerable to the Labour government, have taken no time to start cost cutting, trimming services. 

This is absolutely ridiculous. London needs better, not worse public transport. Thameslink should operate a regular, frequent service that passengers can rely on. The claim that cutting services increases reliability is utter nonsense. You improve reliability by maintaing and investing in the infrastructure, employing enough staff, particularly drivers, to run the service and by having systems that correctly inform passengers when things go wrong. If there are less trains, it just means that you wait even longer for another one, when they cancel one. 

Renationalisation of rail was a key pledge of Sir Keir Starmer's Labour party. They didn't say that this would lead to a worse service. It almost feels like they are deliberately annoying people so that there is no clamour for more widespread nationalisation of other failing industries such as water. I can see no other sensible reason for service cuts. 

Now Mr Pinto-Duschisky has been MP since Labour won in 2024. He has a majority of seven votes, I believe Hendon is the most marginal seat in the country. I have some sage career advice for him. You may know that you have no power and the usefulness to your constituents of a chocolate teapot, but spelling it out on Facebook is not a good move. He should be banging on the door of the transport secretary and standing up for his constituents, not sitting around being fobbed off by a few members of Thameslinks middle management.