Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) frequency of Northern Rail services in (i) Stockport constituency and (ii) across Greater Manchester on Sundays.

Northern has acknowledged to passengers and the Government that its current performance is not acceptable. The organisation has developed and is beginning to implement a performance improvement programme to create the modern, flexible organisation which can deliver reliable service and a customer-focussed seven-day railway.

Resolving Sunday working arrangements with RMT conductors is central to this. We are encouraging Northern and RMT to continue their discussions, so that passengers in the North can return to a reliable Sunday service. We are watching closely to make sure this work continues at pace.