Sutton Council will be pushing ministers for faster services from London to Sutton.  The “fiasco” caused by the Government’s controversial and later reversed decision to award a major rail contract after a flawed bidding process will allow councillors more time to lobby ministers for better rail links to Sutton.

All bidding on rail franchises has been suspended by the Government after the process by which the West Coast Rail Line was awarded to First Group earlier this year was revealed to be faulty. The award has since been rescinded and the bidding process is being revised.

A consultation on the combined Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise, which serves Sutton, was held earlier this year and closed in September.

Sutton Council responded to the consultation by asking for, among other things, a 15 minute stopping service between London Victoria and Sutton and improvements to the town’s station.

Paul Sullivan, a member of the public, raised the issue at Sutton Council’s full council meeting on Monday 5th November and asked why the council did not submit detailed plans of how to achieve those aims and suggested there should be a meeting between interested parties and the Department for Transport (DfT) to figure out how a detailed plan could be put together.  He added: “I would like to hear whether the council feels, as the official representative of people of Sutton, whether it has done enough to ensure a new franchise delivers a better rail service more in line with our neighbours and why it did not use its political connections to go the extra mile and ensure this.”

Councillor Jill Whitehead, chairwoman of the council’s environment and neighbourhood committee, said: “The council set out the level of frequency and the level of service it would like to see but the council doesn’t have the remit to prescribe how that is achieved. The council has set out its expectations and has deferred to the expertise of the DfT .”

She also said she met Transport Minister Norman Baker MP to lobby him and that councillors are seeking to lobby further.

Cllr. Colin Hall said: “Delays in franchising caused by the West Coast fiasco will give us more time.”

Cllr. Whitehead added: “We will use this time to campaign and will seek more meetings with ministers.”

It is not clear when the franchise bidding process will be reopened.