Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the new National Rail timetable on the reliability of Southeastern train services.

Department officials monitor Southeastern performance very closely and regular discussions take place covering all aspects of its service. There has been significant disruption to Southeastern services over recent months driven by industrial action, multiple infrastructure incidents and mobilising the new timetable, introduced on 11 December 2022.

Southeastern and Network Rail have established a Joint Task Force and have already made several changes, including operating additional services and lengthening some trains where demand is higher than expected. This work continues and will provide further tactical interventions as well as focusing on improving underlying performance. There is evidence that it is having a positive impact with underlying performance on an improving trend in recent weeks. My officials and I continue to monitor Southeastern performance very closely whilst Southeastern will continue to keep stakeholders informed of developments.