Hello and thank you all for coming here today. I am here at Reigate station for one very important reason. Currently in Westminster a very important debate has just been opened regarding the North Downs Line improvement motion. This would affect the line running from here to Oxford and Redhill and all services from it.

Let me provide you with some context for the debate. As I am sure many of you know the line through here is lacking: it isn’t electrified, the trains are slow, short and quite far between. In many other areas around London the services are of much greater standard in all respects. There is no reason why it should be this way, there is no reason why this line has to be forgotten.

This is why I have submitted a motion calling for general improvements to be made on the line as already recommended by our local council and by Network rail. These improvements are very basic and in many ways obvious but I am sure they will make your daily commute somewhat better.

The first big thing, electrification. If we want faster, more comfortable, longer and more eco-friendly trains to run on this line we need to ensure all parts of it are electrified, unlike the current patchy system whereby some sections are covered and some aren’t.

The rest are more technical, mostly rearranging signals and minor bits of track so that trains can run faster and more numerous. I want to see 4 trains pass across here every hour and these minor changes will make it possible.

But won’t all of this cost money? Yes, it will. Depending on the technicalities of how Network Rail may decide to electrify the line, which I won’t give a boring explanation for cause I would much rather you didn’t fall asleep at one of my speeches, it will cost between 107 and 167 million. Now that is quite a lot of money I’ll admit, but given the very vast amount of funding given to many other causes in a budget I am sure any conscious Government will have some space for this railway line. Furthermore the benefit to cost ratio is very high, between 1,7 and 2,6. This means that for every pound the Government puts in our local economy will get around 2 out of the project. Amazing, am I right?

Now you might have noticed something about the motion. It is sponsored by the current MP for Surrey, my good friend cuth. I understand that some of you may be wondering why i decided to do this. Well the reason is simple, I want the motion to succeed. The fact that the MP for Surrey, the area most affected by the proposal, has publicly supported the motion makes it look all the more solid, credible and proves to a greater extent that it has the support of the locals.

But isn’t my campaign be a campaign to unseat him? Why am I giving him the chance to brag about supporting better railways? Well no, this is not primarily a campaign to unseat him. This is a campaign to ensure that Surrey is represented in parliament and that it becomes the center of political attention. Whilst becoming your MP would be amazing and I will be definitely be trying to do it, the results on the field are the most important thing, such as securing the funding for this railway line. This is why you can expect me to work across party lines in order to increase the prosperity of Surrey and improve the quality of life here. My campaign is not a mere campaign to get elected, it’s a campaign to make my country better off: getting elected is like a fun side quest that would help with the main quest.

I hope all parties can come together and show they support Surrey and they support an expansion in green infrastructure. And even if they don’t, my fight won’t stop there.

Thank you very much!