{"id":1575,"date":"2017-04-27T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T09:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=1575"},"modified":"2017-04-25T18:14:58","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T18:14:58","slug":"our-railways-need-to-put-passengers-first-says-michael","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=1575","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our railways need to put passengers first\u2019, says Michael"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michael\u00a0has personally handed his recommendations for the new South Eastern rail franchise to the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling MP.<\/p>\n<p>His letter, which was written in conjunction with his official response to the public consultation and can be accessed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?attachment_id=1580\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1580\">here<\/a>, argues for a \u2018<em>railway system that works for everyone<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>In the nine-page letter, Michael argues: \u2018<em>For too long, services on the South Eastern rail network have been unacceptably poor [\u2026] Improved capacity, customer service, and payment systems are all welcome steps, but I believe the new arrangements need to go further.\u00a0 Our railways need to start putting passengers first<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Michael calls for improved capacity, improved compensation arrangements, and improved connectivity on South Eastern trains, and outlines numerous arguments for the extension of the Oyster network to Sevenoaks.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?attachment_id=1583\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1583\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1583\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC_0019.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0019\" width=\"6000\" height=\"4000\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC_0019.jpg 6000w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC_0019-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC_0019-768x512.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC_0019-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC_0019-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Michael\u00a0said: \u2018I have responded to the public consultation to make the case for passengers in Sevenoaks and Swanley.\u00a0 Discussions on the new rail franchise provide a great opportunity to push for better services on our railways and a better deal for passengers: more space, improved compensation arrangements, and the extension of the Oyster network.\u00a0 I encourage constituents to visit the public consultation site and make sure their views are heard before the consultation closes on 23 May\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The public consultation form can be accessed here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/604904\/south-eastern-rail-franchise-public-consultation.pdf\"><em>https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/604904\/south-eastern-rail-franchise-public-consultation.pdf<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael\u00a0has personally handed his recommendations for the new South Eastern rail franchise to the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling MP. His letter, which was written in conjunction with his official response to the public consultation and can be accessed here, argues for a \u2018railway system that works for everyone\u2019. In the nine-page letter, Michael argues: \u2018For &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=1575\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;\u2018Our railways need to put passengers first\u2019, says Michael&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[510,461,516,517,509,455],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1575"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1579,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions\/1579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}