Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of implications for his policies of the decision by the Office of Rail and Road to change timetable publishing periods from 12 to eight weeks.

Network Rail is seeking to reduce the time it takes to produce rail timetables to improve the industry's ability to respond more quickly to changes in demand patterns. This would mean that final timetables are published eight weeks in advance rather than 12 weeks as they are currently required to do.

Plans for this change have not been finalised and are a decision for the rail industry. The plans would require a change to the Network Licence Conditions for Network Rail. In response to Network Rail’s proposal, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), as the regulator, launched a formal public consultation seeking to take public views into account when making its decision about the licence change. The consultation ended on 25 May 2023 and the ORR are currently assessing stakeholders’ views before re-engaging with the industry on the matter.

In anticipation of this change taking place, Network Rail has been working with operators to develop systems that would enable provisional timetables to be published earlier to facilitate advance ticket booking - a measure I firmly support. The Department expects the rail industry to ensure that passengers are at the heart of decision making and that any new processes protect and enhance the customer experience.