Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of the frequency of the cancellation of services on the Barton Line; and what steps are being taken to address this.

We recognise that recent performance on the Barton Line has been below what passengers rightly expect. The Department is aware that East Midlands Railway (EMR) is working to improve train performance on this route. To achieve this, EMR:

• Introduced a revised timetable in December 2025 to reduce the impact of service disruption and delays;
• is continuing with its major train refurbishments to improve reliability and performance;
• is continuing to work with Network Rail to address infrastructure and operational issues.