Henry Smith MP has welcomed the successful outcome of the campaign to save the Day Travelcard which he led for Crawley passengers. Yesterday (Tuesday, 24th October) the Mayor of London finally confirmed that he will not go ahead with his earlier proposals to scrap the Day Travelcard, which allows passengers to take journeys across overground and underground trains as well as buses into and around London on one ticket.

Henry said;

“The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has spent months arguing with himself while I’ve been galvanising the views of Crawley residents to stop damaging proposals to scrap the Day Travelcard.

“In July the Mayor was made aware of the views which had been raised with me by concerned Crawley rail passengers after I wrote to him. The following month I launched a petition calling on him to scrap these damaging plans, for which I’m grateful to the hundreds of Crawley residents who signed and gave their support.

“The Mayor of London has taken months to come to the conclusion which hard-working Crawley residents reached on day one of his proposals being announced.

“Going forward I continue the call for the Oyster zone, which currently only goes as far south as Gatwick Airport, to be extended south to include Three Bridges, Crawley and Ifield train stations.”

As well as various campaigns, like Henry Smith MP’s, the Day Travelcard, which provides convenient, single ticketing for less frequent visitors to the capital, was saved after the Department for Transport and train operators convinced Transport for London of its benefits to the area economy and passenger affordability.

The Rail Minister, Huw Merriman MP, added that the Government had given £6 billion to Transport for London over the past three years and that the Travelcard agreement came after “Government intervention”.