Mark Garnier – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Garnier on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve the performance of London Midland commuter trains.

Stephen Hammond

We do not monitor train operator performances by service type (i.e. commuter trains only) under the Franchise Agreement; we monitor each operator’s performance across their whole network against benchmarks under the Franchise Agreement.

The Department monitors each train operator’s overall performance against these benchmarks and there are clear actions set out in the Franchise Agreement should performance drop below what is expected. This regular monitoring includes monthly meetings with their senior management where performance figures are scrutinised and challenged.

At present London Midland are assessed as being within their contracted performance benchmarks as set out in the Franchise Agreement.

In 2002 when Network Rail took control of Britain’s Rail infrastructure, train performance was languishing at record low levels (78.6% of trains arriving on time nationally). Since then, it has risen to averaging around 90%. Network Rail has been tasked with ensuring that 92.5% of trains arrive on time nationally by 2019.

We are determined that improvements in infrastructure across the network, as evidenced by the £38 billion investment agreed with Network Rail for the next 5 years, will further improve the performance of all train operators.