Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on (a) the peak seat capacity and (b) demand for rail services between Woking to London Waterloo in each peak morning hour.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department for Transport receives demand and capacity information for services at selected stations based on counts carried out by each Train Operating Company (TOC). This information is provided to the Department by the TOCs in confidence, as it relates to the way in which train operating companies operate their businesses.
The Department publishes aggregated statistics showing overall passenger numbers and crowding levels into the major cities and central London stations in the publication ‘Rail passenger numbers and crowding on weekdays in major cities in England and Wales: 2018’. Information on the total number of seats and passenger numbers travelling from all locations into London Waterloo (via Vauxhall) is presented in the table below.
Morning peak seating and passenger number arrivals into London Waterloo on a typical autumn weekday in 2018
Time | 07:00 - 07:59 | 08:00 - 08:59 | 09:00 - 09:59 |
Passengers | 36,889 | 51,538 | 25,988 |
Total seats | 28,764 | 36,223 | 24,969 |
Additional years are available at the link below:
The only services which are exempt from commercial confidentiality are those which feature in the ‘top ten’ most overcrowded peak train services into major cities. In Autumn 2018, the 07:02 Woking to London Waterloo service featured in this list.
Full details are available from the statistical release at the following link:
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many train services from Woking to London Waterloo were cancelled as a result of train reliability issues in the last six months.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department does not hold this information, but officials have asked SWR to get in touch with the Honourable Member to discuss his concerns, and answer this and any other questions he may have.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of rail franchises that operate in Surrey on reliability of services.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
There are regular discussions between Departmental Officials and Franchised Train Operators. Operational performance is discussed at contractual performance meetings, held at least every four weeks.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to make public transport more inclusive and accessible for disabled children and their families.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government is committed to ensuring disabled people of all ages have the same access to transport and opportunities to travel as everyone else.
In July 2018 the Department published the Inclusive Transport Strategy. Its ambition is to create a transport system that provides equal access for disabled people by 2030, and to enable disabled people to travel confidently, easily and without extra cost.
In July 2019, the Department reported to Parliament on the progress it had made in delivering the many commitments set out in the Strategy.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the equity of the most recent rise in rail ticket prices.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Government does understand the concern about the cost of some rail fares and the impact that this can have on people’s budgets. This is why the Government has ensured that regulated rail fares can rise by no more than inflation for the last six years. While this change is unwelcome, it is not fair to ask people who do not use trains to pay more for those who do. Taxpayers already subsidise the network by more than £4bn a year – (54% of our transport budget is spent on the 2% of journeys that rail accounts for).
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to require train companies operating services from Woking station into London to compensate passengers in instances of a reduced service over an extended period of time.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Compensation is not offered to rail passengers during instances of a reduced service. However, when things go wrong, and passengers are unable to make informed decisions about their ticket purchases, for example due to unannounced timetable changes, passengers are entitled to claim a refund.
The South Western Railway (SWR) Passenger's Charter informs passengers of the amount of compensation they may claim back for a delay or cancellation. Compensation is measured against the timetable in operation on the day of travel. Recently the SWR timetable has had to be amended to mitigate the impact of the RMT strikes, and SWR are required to publicise these changes in advance of the day in question. If delays occur on the day compared to the temporary timetable in place, then passengers will be entitled to claim Delay Repay compensation for delays of 15 minutes or more on SWR.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to extend the compensation package to rail season ticket holders for delays of under 30 minutes.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
We are working with train operators to roll out Delay Repay 15 (DR15) which entitles all passengers, including season ticket holders, who have been delayed by 15-29 minutes to compensation worth 25% of the ticket price.
Today, over 70% of journeys on DfT franchises now have DR15 available to them, including passengers on South Western Railway. This forms part of government’s commitment to significantly improving compensation for passengers when things go wrong.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of railway services between London and Woking.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
South Western Railways’s (SWR) Franchise Agreement contains provisions that incentivises SWR to improve its own performance, and to work jointly with Network Rail. Challenging targets for performance have been set and where performance falls below expected levels, SWR is required to invest additional sums of money into initiatives to address the causes of the poor performance. This has been the case in the first two years of the Franchise, where targets were not met. My officials continue to closely monitor SWR’s performance and are currently in the process of contracting a Remedial Agreement plan.