If Epsom were to become a London borough as the price of not being overcharged for travel to London compared to parts of Reigate, it should be enlarged to include those parts of Banstead and Sutton, perhaps Ashtead and Chessington and Worcester Park which tend to be more akin to Epsom than to inner London.
Perhaps the M25 would be a natural southern boundary. This would be a more natural affinity than with Sutton or Kingston.
A drawback would be the dead hand of Transport for London, which though adding improvements in central London, has wreaked mischief for travel from London's outskirts.
There used to be two semi fast trains an hour among the four an hour off-peak trains from Epsom to Waterloo. These did the journey in 26 minutes calling only at Worcester Park and Wimbledon before all stations to Waterloo. Now all trains take nearly 40 minutes.
As a student in the 1960s I could catch trains from my lodging at Surbiton to Waterloo which took about 16 minutes to Waterloo, stopping at Wimbledon. Now about 25 minutes is the norm.
There is a trade off between slowing down trains to serve all stations and providing faster services from busier stations. The slower trains run, the more train sets and crews are needed to provide space for the passengers unnecessarily detained in transit. This wastes fuel and manpower, driving up fares higher than necessary. Management then claims a bonus having enlarged its budget by incurring unnecessary costs.
Though born in UK and schooled in Epsom, I have also lived in Canada, disentangling the banking and finance powers reserved to the Federal Government and the exclusive powers reserved to provinces, denied the full taxation powers to supply the services which were their duty.
When I lived in France I enjoyed 6 garbage collections a week, only Saturday evenings excluded, for the same level of local tax which is now levied in Epsom. It would be worthwhile to take an hard look at how other jurisdictions solve similar problems to those we encounter in UK. Often their solutions only work in their environment but sometimes we can borrow ideas and adapt them.
We are not doomed to always accept things as they are.
Brian Newton,
Ashley Avenue
Epsom
- Send your letters to: letters@epsomguardian.co.uk
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