Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the performance of train operators since the announcement of the creation of Great British Railways.

Great British Railways is set to be the ‘directing mind’ for the rail industry, bringing together the management of the network and the delivery of passenger services into a single public body. Establishing Great British Railways as a new arm’s length body will take time, but we must and have begun the process of fixing our railways now – improving services for our customers and taking a whole-system approach, so we deliver a more sustainable, affordable and reliable railway.

We are starting to see train reliability stabilise following a decade of decline, and cancellations are no longer rising. We have ended the national industrial dispute, bringing passenger confidence back and we are seeing passenger journeys increasing. Furthermore, we have made station-specific performance information available for the first time, as a visible sign that we are determined to improve standards.