Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of passenger demand and peak-time capacity on the effectiveness of Northern services operating on the Clitheroe–Manchester line.

The Rail North Partnership (which is a collaboration between Transport for the North and the Department for Transport to manage the Northern and TransPennine Express rail contracts) has regular discussions with Northern about the levels of service and passenger demand and its capacity to meet these across its network.

Every effort is taken to ensure the planned formation of trains is provided. However unfortunately there may be occasions when this is not possible due to more trains than usual requiring repair.