Richmond and Twickenham MPs have joined Lib-Dem leader, Ed Davey, to demand urgent talks with the government to challenge drastic rail cuts.

Sarah Olney, the MP for Richmond Park, and Munira Wilson, who represents Twickenham, say the cuts proposed by South Western Railway (SWR) threaten to drive travellers back to their cars.

SWR is carrying out a consultation on cuts to services that will become a permanent part of the timetable from December next year.

The Lib-Dem MPs says the company is blaming a contract it has with the government for the need to make cuts, which were initially driven by the impact of the pandemic and a drop in commuting.

The politicians warn in their letter that the cuts, many in the morning commuting peak, will lead to 'overcrowding on trains, drive up car use and damage the economic recovery in south west London'.

They complain: "Some stations in our constituencies face cuts in services of up to 50%."

Services to Waterloo from St Margarets, North Sheen and Mortlake are being cut from four to two trains per hour, losing the service every 15 minutes and instead becoming half-hourly.

Teddington, Hampton Wick and Strawberry Hill will all lose two trains per hour during the morning peak.

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Whitton will lose service on the Hounslow loop off-peak, though it will continue to run to Twickenham. This means that passengers will have to change at Twickenham for trains to Waterloo.

Whitton will also lose one of its extra peak trains from Aldershot.

They have written to Transport minister, Chris Heaton-Harris, asking for an urgent meeting 'to discuss these far-reaching and damaging proposals, which will have a huge impact on local resident and businesses'.

They added: "London train services across zones 3-6 cannot cannot be left with sub-par rail services."

South Western Railway claimed the plan to cut services is part of an initiative to 'build back a better railway for the future'.

It said: "We are acutely aware that in the past we have responded to ever growing customer demand by increasing the number of trains on the SWR network, often at the expense of the performance and reliability of our services. But, as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, we have a unique opportunity to build back a better railway for the future.

"Since March 2020, we have been supported by the Government to run a reduced service that has kept key workers moving. This period has shown that our performance improves significantly when we are able to run fewer trains while still meeting customer demand for our services.

"Even though passengers are now returning to the railways, all the forecasts suggest they will not return to pre-Covid levels for the foreseeable future. The December 2022 timetable is our opportunity to plan for a long-term timetable that will retain the reliability improvements we've made, meet the forecast demand and provide value for the taxpayer while balancing other local and national priorities."

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