Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport,pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2019 to Question 208287, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Network Rail’s investment and planning with respect to (a) signalling, (b) platforms and (c) power supply in order to facilitate the introduction of the new trains due onto the rail network between 2019 and 2021.

This is an exciting time for the rail industry and for passengers, with new fleets of trains being introduced which will help deliver a step-change in customer service. The performance of trains is one factor affecting the overall network performance. Both the Department and operators consider these factors as part of the franchise competition process. Operators then have obligations to deliver performance in line with their franchise commitments; no separate target is set in respect of train performance.