The Government is not doing enough to stop planned rail strikes that will impact 1000s of people over the summer.

This week we are due to see the first of possibly many rail strikes that will take place across the country over the summer. The government seems to blame everyone else instead of taking responsibility and trying to find a solution.

We have already seen travel disruption at airports as flights have been cancelled, and now commuters will struggle to get to work, and holidaymakers will have their plans disrupted yet again.

Neither the Prime Minister nor his transport secretary seems able to keep the country moving, and this will have far-reaching consequences.

Zöe Franklin, Parliamentary Candidate for Guildford, Cranleigh and our villages, said

"The planned summer of strikes is going to have a significant effect on thousands of people and have other knock-on effects that the government should be concerned about. Our rail system is well used by commuters who will struggle to get to work, holidaymakers who will be unable to travel to their destinations and, something the government and the transport secretary seem happy to ignore, those in education.

"Thousands of school children, college and university students rely on the train network to get to and from their place of learning every day. Many are sitting exams and will have no other form of transport. This is totally unacceptable. Young people have been through enough over the past two years and they do not need this stress on top of their exams.

We are also seeing warnings on road signs to expect more traffic during the strikes. This will affect air pollution and, as a result, our environment. The government needs to stop pointing fingers at others, step up and take action. Their response is simply not good enough."

The Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Transport, Sarah Olney, this week said

"Grant Shapps should resign if these strikes go ahead. The first duty of the Transport Secretary is to keep our country moving, yet an entire summer of rail strikes means he will have failed.

"Commuters and holidaymakers will struggle to forgive the unions if these strikes go ahead, but Grant Shapps is just as much to blame for sitting on his hands."