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Thursday 21 January 2016 10:15 am

Everyone agrees TfL running London’s trains like the Overground is a brilliant idea

By: Lynsey Barber

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It's pretty difficult to bring together political parties and several different parts of government and get them to agree, but now there's one thing that has – an apparent shared dislike of commuter trains into London.

Nothing brings people together like a collective resentment towards train companies such as Southeastern, Southern and Thameslink, and now plans to ditch them and let TfL run the services like the Overground have been met with pretty much overwhelming support far and wide.

City Hall, Transport for London and the Department for Transport have agreed the plans will go ahead.

Labour mayoral hopeful Sadiq Khan is on board:

Finally Govt shows glimmer they get anger of London's commuters – as Mayor I'll fight for full powers Londoners deserve over train services

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) January 21, 2016

Conservative mayoral hopeful Zac Goldsmith is too:

I've been working with Government to resolve this as MP & mayoral candidate so I strongly welcome today's news https://t.co/YvO7Z79h0I (2/3)

— Zac Goldsmith (@ZacGoldsmith) January 21, 2016

Local councils and London MPs support it:

Very much in favour of devolving London train services, taking them off the hands of these terrible train operators, and giving them to TfL

— ChukaUmunna (@ChukaUmunna) January 17, 2016

Really good news for #southeastern sufferers. Detail not clear yet but TfL set to take over all London commuter rail https://t.co/8eccNt9XAf

— Matt Hartley (@MattHartley100) January 21, 2016

Great news for commuters. West Norwood & Gipsy Hill to be taken over by TfL & become part of London Overground. https://t.co/cio6gyR2CI

— Matthew Bennett (@matthewpbennett) January 21, 2016

https://twitter.com/jhoward87/status/690105521664323589

Lord Adonis says it will revolutionise London.

Of course the devil will be in the detail, including agreeing the funding for the project. But for now, commuters are delighted:

https://twitter.com/SerenaCowdy/status/690111963729367040

Such good news prompts my first happy train-related tweet ever https://t.co/92hPFPciZe #solongthameslink #nomoresoutheastern #rollon2018

— Helen in London 🌻 (@Helen_in_London) January 21, 2016

The broad cross-party support for bringing London suburban rail under TfL control shows what a dismal fucking failure rail privatisation is.

— Andy Simpson (@aiusepsi) January 21, 2016

TfL taking over London rail services from Thameslink is *fantastic* news. We need a service that puts customers before shareholders.

— Robin Clarke (@rclarke) January 21, 2016

Although, the grass is always greener

https://twitter.com/andyetc/status/690108410847715332

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