Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 35 of the paper, South East Rail Franchise Stakeholder Document what proportion of people from the Metro area (a) opposed reducing the choice of London destinations (b) wanted to retain services to (i) Charing Cross, (ii) Cannon Street and (iii) Victoria; and if he will make a statement.

The Invitation to Tender (ITT) sets out the minimum requirements of the next franchise. The priority of the ITT is to improve the reliability of services across the network including the Metro area.

93.6% of people in the Metro area (who responded to the consultation and also provided their postcode) were opposed or strongly opposed to reducing the choice of central London destinations from individual stations to enable the simplicity of a regular service to a single London terminal throughout the day to benefit both regular and occasional passengers.

Since the consultation did not ask which terminals respondents wished to retain services to, we are unable to state what proportion of respondents wished to maintain services to each specific London terminal.