Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the rail franchise system.

We continuously monitor a range of indicators, including performance figures and passenger satisfaction. Rail use is at its highest level since the 1920s: 1.65 billion passenger journeys were made in Great Britain on franchised passenger trains in 2014-15. The number of journeys made on the rail network has more than doubled since the introduction of the franchise system.