EARLY Day Motion (EDM) 2398, recently tabled in the House of Commons, welcomes the extension of the East London Line.

It acknowledges it will have a dramatic effect on rail services in Lewisham and other south London boroughs.

And it makes an innocuous call for services on the line to remain in public ownership when it reopens after the extension work.

Why have none of the MPs in Lewisham so far signed this EDM?

The model of privatisation for the National Rail network is almost universally accepted to have been a disaster, with even the Conservatives who devised it now admitting it was a mistake.

Labour pledged to return the railways to public ownership, but they have not done so.

London Underground services remain in public ownership.

But now, for the first time, the Mayor of London plans to privatise part of the Tube according to the same disastrous model as the National Rail network.

There is no good reason for doing this.

At the same time, passengers using stations on the line through Brockley and Sydenham would no doubt welcome the Tube being extended to their stations.

Instead, the desolate and often threatening ambience of National Rail stations in London is going to be extended to part of the Tube.

I urge all our MPs to sign EDM 2398.

M COULSTON

Armoury Road

Deptford