Sadiq Khan has pledged to make the Transport for London (TfL) takeover of suburban rail services a ‘top priority’ should he become London Mayor, saying current private train companies do an ‘awful, awful job’.

From January: Transport for London announce takeover of London's suburban rail services

South West Trains services to Richmond borough are among those to be taken over, it was announced in January, with the earliest break clause in the contract coming in 2019.

Southeastern, Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern could be taken over from 2018.

Mr Khan confirmed to the Richmond and Twickenham Times he would take the first opportunity to take control of the suburban links from City Hall.

Mr Khan said: “This is a very important issue for me and it’s a top, top priority if I become Mayor.

“Transport for London does a far better job, in my view, than train companies or the Department for Transport.

“I want the Mayor to be in charge of the commuter trains coming into London that are currently run by Southern, South West Trains, Thameslink at the earliest opportunity.

“They do an awful, awful job – there are constant complaints of delays, overcrowding and cancellations.

“And Londoners pay exorbitant fees fares for the pleasure – and I think I could a far better job than the DfT and the TOCs are at the moment.”

The takeover could mean that more than 80 per cent of London overground stations have a train every 15 minutes, an increase of 13 per cent currently.

Since the establishment of London Overground, passenger numbers on the routes have increased sixfold, he said.

Over the last eight years suburban train fares have increased by 50 per cent, with some commuters paying up to £3,500 per year more than they were in 2008.

Mr Khan has pledged to freeze fares for four years to offset this – which has been estimated to cost between about £400m to as much as £1.9billion.

However, he has received criticism from some quarters for jeopardising re-investment in TfL at a time when two Crossrail projects are underway.

Mr Khan said he would partially fund this by streamlining TfL, which he described as ‘good yet flabby and inefficient’.

Mr Khan also confirmed he would not take control of suburban services before the contracts expired – at the earliest in 2018 and in 2021 at the latest.

He said: “What we don’t want to do is spend taxpayers’ money buying back the contracts so when the contracts come to an end the DfT should hand the lines to the Mayor.

“But in the meantime there’s nothing stopping the DfT giving me the powers to work with the train operating companies to improve their services.”

Labour’s mayoral candidate could not commit to re-zoning train stations in Richmond borough, with Richmond seeking to move from zone 4 to 3, and Twickenham from zone 5 to 4 if the zones were based on geography.

He said: “I will look at it for sure, but I cannot promise anything before looking at the facts and speaking to advisors at City Hall.

“However I have sympathy with re-zoning efforts, because I have seen firsthand the benefits to Stratford in East London through re-zoning.”