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Written Question
West Coast Main Line: Standards
Wednesday 9th April 2025

Asked by: Lord Inglewood (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the percentages of total delays on the West Coast Main Line caused by (1) mechanical failure, (2) infrastructure failure, and (3) staff problems.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes data on train delays, which can be publicly accessed through their data portal. The ORR also reports the causes of these delays by operator. Given that multiple operators provide services on the West Coast Main Line, it is not possible to isolate the causes of delays occurring specifically on this route.

However, data on the delay causes for Avanti West Coast, the primary operator of intercity services on the West Coast Main Line, for the last 12 months for which data is available is set out in the attached document.

(1) Mechanical failure - 18% of Avanti West Coast delay minutes were attributed to ‘Fleet’, either the TOC’s own or that of another operator.

(2) Infrastructure failure - 64% of Avanti West Coast delay minutes were attributed to ‘Network Rail’ including track, and network Management.

(3) Staff Problems - 8% of Avanti West Coast delay minutes were attributed to ‘Traincrew’ either the TOC’s own or that of another operator.


Written Question
High Speed 2 Railway Line: Cumbria
Thursday 21st December 2017

Asked by: Lord Inglewood (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have ruled out including stops in Cumbria for the proposed HS2 rail line.

Answered by Baroness Sugg

Service assumptions for HS2 are still being developed, and exact timetables will be developed before HS2 operational services commence. We have not ruled out stops in Cumbria.