A petition signed by more than 2,000 Sutton residents calling for the Government to scrap Southern and Thameslink’s rail franchises has been handed to the Prime Minister.

Southern Rail has come under significant fire from commuters who have faced delays and disruption to their journeys as a result of cancelled trains and cuts to services.

Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington, presented the petition that has 2,908 signatures to the Government today in an effort to get TfL to run suburban rail services.

The MP’s call to scrap the much-maligned rail operator comes after Govia Thamelink, the company that runs troubled Southern rail, announced it would increase the average fare by 1.8 per cent from January 2.

Mr Brake said: ‘‘It’s been almost two years since we were promised rail services would get better. Instead commuters found out last week that fares will go up in 2017 despite receiving the worst train services in the country.

“The Government’s inaction is a disgrace and shows that they are not ready to stand up to the train operators.

"It’s time for the Government to step up and strip Southern and Thameslink of their franchise and instead get Transport for London to run suburban rail services. I hope our petition is a wakeup call to the PM.’’

Southern has since said it would “not see a penny” of the cash made by the increase in fares, and that it would be directed to the Department for Transport (DfT).

A spokesman for Southern said: “Regulated fares increases are determined by government and ours, in line with the rest of the industry have risen by 1.9 per cent.

“We applied this formula to the remainder of our fares, and put this to the DfT for approval.

“It's also important to note that all revenue from ticket sales goes to the DfT - that's both regulated and unregulated revenue. We do not see a penny of it.”