Caroline has responded to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling's announcement of a package of measures worth £20m to reinstate “decent journeys” on Southern lines.

She said:

“It’s astonishing that taxpayers’ money is set to be used to bail out a firm which lavishes its bosses with million pound wage packets. If the Government was serious about sorting the problems with Southern Rail then they would withdraw the damaging requirement for driver only trains, use this cash to employ the staff needed to run the railway and give long-suffering passengers the compensation they deserve.

“It beggars belief that the Government is willing to plough subsidies into a failing private company but won’t countenance bringing the railways under democratic control through public ownership. Their ideological zealotry is getting in the way of common sense – and needlessly prolonging the pain for passengers.”