Govia Thameslink Railway: Franchises

(asked on 6th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to immediately take steps to prepare for a publicly-owned organisation to take over the Govia Thameslink Railway franchise on an agreed date; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Paul Maynard Portrait
Paul Maynard
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 16th October 2017

We have no plans to change the ownership of the railway. Our priority is to improve customer journeys and I am pleased that the quality of passenger services on Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has been significantly better since the New Year, with the Public Performance Measure of punctuality currently at 82%, compared to 62% in early December 2016. The latest National Rail Passenger Survey also showed a 4% increase in overall journey satisfaction on GTR compared with the previous survey. Work is underway delivering on the recommendations of the Chris Gibb report, including £300 million for Network Rail to improve rail infrastructure and resilience along the Southern and Thameslink rail networks, to drive further improvements.

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