Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent representations he has made to Southern Railway about its performance.

The Department’s senior officials attend four weekly meetings with the train operators senior management team, where all aspects of performance under the franchise agreement is scrutinised and challenged. Whilst the Department also monitors each train operator’s overall performance, the Franchise Management team remains in close regular contact with Southern particularly whilst performance is not at the level passengers expect.

As my Right Honourable Friend is aware, I recently convened and chaired roundtable meetings with the senior management of both Southern and Thameslink (GTR), Network Rail, Department officials who are responsible for the franchise in the DfT, MPs whose constituencies are being affected by the performance of these operators, Passenger Focus and London TravelWatch, and the Office of Rail Regulation.

Ministers and officials have also held a number of meetings with Southern, Network Rail and the Office of Rail Regulation to discuss the poor performance on the Southern routes. This has resulted in Southern, Govia Thameslink Railway and Network Rail publishing a high level improvement plan on their websites which sets out the actions they are taking to turn things around.

Furthermore, the Department has secured a commitment that Network Rail , Southern and GTR shall provide a monthly report on progress towards their committed outputs and publish this on their websites, so that passengers have transparency on what is being delivered.