Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) delays and (b) knock-on delays caused to Southern services at peak time due to holding trains to prevent simultaneous arrivals on platforms 15-19 at London Victoria station.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is up to the Rail Industry to deliver a timetable that provides passengers with the performance they expect, whilst maintaining safety. Peak services are timetabled to ensure there is sufficient gap between trains to allow passengers to clear platforms and concourse. Note that due to the track and platform layout at Victoria, there is a limit to the number of trains that can arrive in a short space of time at platforms 15-19.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to publish the Gibb report into the Southern Rail franchise.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Chris Gibb report was published by the Department for Transport on 22 June 2017. The report is now available on the GOV.UK website along with the Secretary of State’s response.
Please see links provided: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/southern-rail-network-gibb-report
SoS response link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/gibb-report-on-southern-rail-network-government-response
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether (a) his Department or (b) Network Rail have carried out a risk assessment on the ability to evacuate the concourse at London Victoria Station platforms 15 to 19 at peak time in an emergency.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Network Rail is responsible for carrying out safety risk assessments at Victoria Station. They do these as part of Crowd Control & Emergency Plans, in line with Network Rail’s Managed Stations Standards (MS). These are produced yearly as a minimum, but are also produced for special events and issues when they arise. Any incidents of crowd control or emergency evacuations are logged and recorded, and reported upon weekly to the Route Station Manager. Every incident has a post-incident debrief which is recorded and actions fed back into the plans.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the reasons are for the time taken to publish the Gibb report into the Southern Rail franchise.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Chris Gibb report was published by the Department for Transport on 22 June 2017. The report is now available on the GOV.UK website along with the Secretary of State’s response.
Please see links provided: GOV.UK website link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/southern-rail-network-gibb-report
SoS response link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/gibb-report-on-southern-rail-network-government-response
As soon as we received the report, the Department assessed Chris Gibb’s technical recommendations against work or commitments that were already planned or underway. In early January we committed an extra £300m funding for Network Rail to boost the resilience of the infrastructure along the Brighton mainline and associated routes.
The report could not be published during the pre-election period and we have published the report as soon as possible following the general election.