Kent Rail

Mixed news across Kent this week for our railways.

Firstly the high speed service is being extended to Maidstone from 23rd May. This will knock 8 minutes off the journey time to London, but importantly bring people into North London rather than the South. It's only 4 trains a day in each direction but it is good news.

Secondly, many in Kent are up in arms at Southeastern keeping the franchise for our train service. They cite poor performance and high costs as a reason to take the franchise away but the government is not so keen and has gone against MPs in Kent.

For me, public transport should be nationalised and should receive more investment than our roads currently do. Proper investment would make a real difference - unfortunately the road lobby has successfully dubbed public transport investment as 'taxpayer subsidy' while road subsidies are called 'investments and repairs'.