Anne Main MP has met with rail minister, Paul Maynard, following recent calls for an urgent meeting to discuss commuter services and the viability of the Radlett railfreight.

‘I was heartened by the minister’s commitment to passenger services being the priority for the government,’ said the St Albans MP.

‘The message I gave to the minister was clear: railfreight is a white elephant. Network Rail have given me no answers. We have no idea how railfreight will work in practice, which leads me to believe that it’s completely unworkable and it should be exposed immediately.

‘Passenger services are essential to St Albans. Anything that compromises this is clearly unacceptable. The minister was very firm that this was also the government’s position and he reiterated that passenger services should not be put at risk and will be the priority. I believe that this offers a glimmer of hope for commuters and those worried about the impact of railfreight on the passenger line.

‘Going forward I will be pushing Network Rail for answers and hope that we can defeat railfreight on issues of access and viability. Right now there are enough problems with commuter services. Railfreight would only make matters worse.

Govia Thameslink (GTR) have responded to Anne’s letter to the minister in which she wrote that the current ‘service disruption has been ongoing for an unacceptable period of time.’

GTR responded apologising for the disruption, stating that recent trains have been, ‘impacted by a series of Network Rail infrastructure failings, trespass incidents, Storm Doris, and on-going reliability issues with our new Class 700 trains.’