Further to the release of proposals from the Department of Transport last week, the Island’s Labour Party respond. Ed
Friday’s Government announcement that it plans to look at how the Island Line could be run outside of a regional franchise and without subsidy opens the door to service cuts and station closures, the Island’s Labour Party has warned.
A “kick in the teeth for local democracy”
Island Labour said the announcement by the Department of Transport was also “a kick in the teeth for local democracy and proved the Island’s MP, Andrew Turner, had failed to represent the best interests of Island Line passengers and completely ignored the unanimous view of local people at the recent KILF meeting.”
Island Labour Party Secretary, Ed Gouge, said,
“The Government’s proposals do not add up. What franchisee is going to take an interest in a rail line that it is then expected to get rid of. There are many local routes within the region that will continue to be subsidised through the wider franchise while the Island is going to have £3m a year taken away from it. Railtrack is to take over investment but will it just be the patching up we have seen in the last franchise and the limited maintenance that has increased running costs?
“Without the support of a regional franchise in which profitable routes subsidise the loss making ones such as the Island, we see no way that the service can continue to run as it is. There will have to be cuts to the stations, staff and services in order for it to remain viable.
“We can only conclude it is because this is what the MP and his unelected transport advisor Nick Finney, aided and abetted by certain Conservative IW Council members, have been lobbying for. Why they should have done this without any mandate and without any meaningful consultation with the local community is anyone’s guess.
“Government has said it plans to consult Islanders on these plans. Island Labour will continue to work with the KILF Group, the trade unions, the Trades Council and the Bus and Rail Users’ Group to ensure Government hears voices other than the MP and his close advisers.”
Risk of losing train line
Cllr Geoff Lumley who leads Labour’s IW Council group, said,
“There is now a very grave risk that the East Wight will now lose its important railway line and we need to be clear that it is the MP and his close Conservative supporters who are to blame.”
Cllr Lumley is now urging the MP to deliver financial support for the transport infrastructure taskforce that he was first mooting almost a year ago,
“Since then he has been unable to identify any source of funding, despite asking the government for money.
“It always appeared to me that this idea – which could cost anything up to £700,000 – is an empty vessel designed to give the impression that the MP is actually doing something positive about local transport. Something he does every four or five years without success. But what the suggestion has actually done is to hasten the likelihood of Island Line being cut loose.”
Image: Ewan Munro under CC BY 2.0
