On Tuesday 20th June, members of Spelthorne in the Zone met with Mark Wilkins, the Stakeholder Lead from the new franchisee, FirstGroup. Campaigners Patti Taylor, Cllr Olivia Rybinski, Cllr Robert Evans, Tracey Carter and Mike Ramlakhan invited Mr Wilkins to Staines upon Thames to discuss the upcoming take over, our campaign for the implementation of Oyster & contactless payment and the idea of bringing our Spelthorne stations into Zone 6. Mr Wilkins set out that it would be the Department of Transport’s decision to include rezoning stations in the bid for tender, and as it stands, they did not include this specification as part of the tender. Disappointingly FG must abide by their tender agreement with the DfT throughout their period as franchise holders. We do feel very encouraged by our strong economical argument to be placed into Zone 6 and will to continue to lobby the Department of Transport. Geographically we should be within the zones and with the support of our MP Kwasi Kwarteng, all county & borough Councillors and support from Spelthorne Borough Council, the campaign will continue. If the rezoning does ever get considered, this will affect the bid for the franchisee and it may be difficult to estimate how much this would affect the revenue of FirstGroup. We do believe however, that footfall would actually increase with the use of Oyster and cheaper fares. Our work will focus on lobbying and collecting data for this argument. On a more positive note, Mr Wilkins explained that the new delivery of 750 carriages to our stations would bring a lot more comfort to passengers. With more toilets, space and wifi these new trains will replace the ones we are currently using. FirstGroup are also going to be using a smarter ticketing system, which will work through a contactless card and smart phone application. FirstGroup & MTR will take over the lines from 20th August, during a busy remodelling period of Waterloo Station. They hope that customers will see an improvement from their take over and we hope that we can work alongside them in our bid to get Spelthorne in the Zone!