Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the performance of the Tyne and Wear Metro.

Performance during the period of DB Regio’s operation of the Metro concession has declined from an average of 86.62% Charter Punctuality (which is measured at 3 or more minutes late) in 2010/11 to only 80.37% in 2014/15.

Responsibility for the letting and operation of the Tyne and Wear Metro concession is a devolved matter and the monitoring of the concession performance rests with Nexus (the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive).

Regular updates are provided to North East Combined Authority meetings, where performance has been scrutinised.

I can confirm that the government is investing £350m over 10 years to renew infrastructure on the Metro, which is already delivering longer term reliability and resilience.