Epsom station is unlikely to be included in Zone 6 until 2018 at the earliest because of the state of British economy according to the town's MP.

Although the Oyster card is due to be introduced at the market town terminus in September, it will not be included in London travel Zone 6 with the accompanying cut in fares.

The Epsom Guardian launched the Zone 6 for Epsom campaign in March 2012 in partnership with MP Chris Grayling.

The initiative has received a huge amount of support from the community, with thousands signing an online petition for the change.

But Mr Grayling said this week he is not confident that Zone 6 will be introduced in the "next few years" - because of the state of the country's economy and the fact that it will cost the train companies between £1m to 1.5m a year in lost fares.

He said: "I am not confident in it happening in the next few years.

"The basic problem is the cash.

"Getting Epsom into Zone 6 gives people a fare cut which is a good thing but it’s not easy to do it in this financial climate.

"This is not going to be a quick process."

Both Southern and South West Trains have individual franchises with the Government to run services through the station, but Mr Grayling said it is South West Trains which makes the most money through fares.

He said he intends to lobby any train operating companies which bid to run the contract to provide services through Epsom, to and from London Waterloo - the franchise currently held by South West Trains - when it comes up for renewal in 2018.

Mr Grayling said: "The Department for Transport said it is happy to take representations as part of the franchise renewal for South West Trains.

"It said it was quite happy to look at proposals from bidders as part of this including putting Epsom into Zone 6.

"At the moment, the truth is I’m chipping away step by step.

"The next thing to do would be to encourage companies wanting to bid for the franchise to put the issue of Zone 6 on their agendas.

"My view is Epsom should be in Zone 6 and I will lobby all the different bidders to get them to put this in their plans."

When asked if he can assure people that there were no plans in the future to put Epsom into Zones 7, 8 or 9, he said: "Yes. I’m going to continue to get Epsom into Zone 6."

For more on Zone 6 for Epsom visit www.epsomguardian.co.uk/zone6.

Your Local Guardian: