Woking is (or should I say was) a fantastic town for commuters. With great links to London and across the South of England, commuters from neighbouring areas used to envy Woking’s excellent road and rail connections.

Unfortunately, in recent years travel in our town has begun to feel more like a nightmare than something to be celebrated.

It’s hard to imagine that these days our neighbours envy our potholed roads, endless emergency roadworks or prodigiously delayed trains.

Thankfully, these are all issues that can (and must) be fixed. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been working hard to get Woking moving again – whether that be through improving our railways, or on the roads through better home-to-school transport.

On trains, I've been working hard to expand Woking's rail connections. I recently chaired a round table with the Heathrow Southern Railway – a privately financed scheme that would not only give Woking travellers a long overdue direct link to Heathrow but also offer commuters a second route into central London via Paddington.

I'll continue pushing to make this a reality.

I've also raised in the House of Commons the alarming decline in South Western Railway's performance since it was brought into public ownership. Nationalisation was supposed to make things better, but as anyone who regularly uses the service knows all too well, it has only become worse.

As much as the Minister might have tried to deny it, the statistics undeniably support this. Delays are at their highest level since 2019 – and in the second half of last year there were 1,000 more cancellations than the year before.

Finally on the railways, Woking has one of the busiest rail aggregate goods yards in the country, with about 300 trains delivering construction material each year. That replaces 14,000 long-distance lorries – around 2.5 million HGV miles.

I’ve pushed the government to do much more to support the rail freight industry – to improve our environment, to reduce congestion and to build the homes we need.

Aside from the railways, I’ve also had my focus firmly on tarmac – pushing the government to do more to support home-to-school transport.

Despite Surrey having the third-largest local authority spend on home-to-school transport – £65 million in one year alone at the last count – many parents and carers are still struggling to get the home- to-school transport that their children need.

Most of the spend is on transport for children with special educational needs. Surrey County Council has failed to properly invest in SEND school places meaning children are forced to travel for their education, pushing more cars on to the roads and driving up costs.

I've heard harrowing stories of children being directed on to unsafe routes, simply so the council can avoid providing transport. One young girl was told to walk down an unlit country lane with no pavement.

No one is happy with the system. It’s not working for anyone – not parents, carers, taxpayers or the wider community. In Parliament, I’ve pushed for capital investment to build more SEND places – an invest-to-save approach that reduces transport costs and improves lives.

With Surrey County Council being replaced in ten months, I’ll be working hard to ensure its failings aren't inherited by the new authority.

Stay in touch: [email protected] https://www.willforster.co.uk/; Instagram @forster_will; Facebook.com/WillforWoking; X @WillForster