Letter on Kent's Railways to KoS

In response to "Southeastern can kiss goodbye to franchise" in this week's Kent on Sunday:

Dear Sir,

You could almost be forgiven for thinking that the Conservatives were the champions of Kent's rail users following their Fares Fair campaign in the run up to this year's general election and with last week's threats to Southeastern by Roger Gale MP (Kent on Sunday, 28th November).

However, those of us with a slightly longer memory will recall that the Tory campaign to curb the rail fare rises placed the blame squarely on the government rather than the franchise holder. Perhaps someone ought to remind Mr Gale who is in government now.

And of course we must not forget that the real reasons that rail fares are the highest in Europe are due to the Tory privatisation of rail, the massive closures in the 1960's and of course the lack of investment by successive governments.

Public transport should be a public service run by the government. Investing in clean public transport while taxing more polluting forms is how government should support our rail service. Perhaps someone remind Mr Gale of this?

Stuart Jeffery
Kent Green Party