TRAIN company Southeastern was slammed in the House of Commons today as snow crippled its services yet again.
Eltham MP Clive Efford is the latest person to criticise the way Southeastern has handled the snow, particularly the lack of information given to passengers.
Across the area, commuters attempting to catch trains have been met with boards that displayed no train information while others have complained about the lack of staff.
Mr Efford told Transport Secretary Philip Hammond to “get a grip“ on the situation.
He said: “What I want to hear from him is what he's doing to the train companies to make sure they give up-to-date, accurate information?"
Mr Hammond said the lack of information was “inexcusable” and the Office of Rail Regulation would be investigating.
The company was widely derided back in January after snow caused the e same problems.
Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group Caroline Pidgeon has also slammed the service.
She said: “Back in January during the two days of snow Southeastern passengers faced a double whammy of a much reduced train service combined with an appalling lack of useful information being provided by the train company.
“Almost a year later it seems Southeastern have failed to actually implement any improvements in communicating with their passengers.
“Southeastern even accept that they need to make many improvements in how they communicate. Clearly their planned improvements have also faced delays on the line.”
A spokesman for Southeastern said: "This week our services have been badly affected by the weather and we are sorry for the problems this has caused our customers.
“We have been working round the clock with Network Rail to try and provide the best service we are able to during this time.
“We have endeavoured to keep our website up to date throughout and pass on information to our passengers. But in a rapidly changing environment there have been times that this has not been possible.
“Today we have been able to run more services throughout the day, although there’s still major disruption across the network.
“We will be continuing to run a reduced service for Friday 3 December due to the predicted weather.
“We are always happy to discuss our service with all stakeholders and explain in detail what we have been doing and why.”
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