Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment was made of passenger satisfaction, reliability, capacity, and the number of commuter services which serve Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction, and Caldicot train stations before the most recent decision to extend the Great Western Franchise was made.

When the Secretary of State announced the twelve month extension of the existing Great Western franchise agreement from March 2019 to March 2020 on 29 November 2017, he also announced a further directly awarded two-year franchise to 2022 and a full public consultation on the future of the Great Western franchise. The rationale for these decisions is set out in the consultation document. The franchise to 2022 will be based on a new franchise agreement informed by the feed-back received from the public consultation.