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Written Question
Avanti West Coast: Standards
Monday 27th March 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of final trains of the day have been cancelled by Avanti West Coast in each month since September 2022.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

The Department does not routinely hold data related to service alterations at specific times of the day. Passengers are protected by the National Conditions of Carriage and where the last train of the day is cancelled operators must provide alternative transport to their destination or accommodation where they reasonably can. Across the day Avanti has reduced self-caused cancellations to 4.2 per cent in early March, but still needs to do more to win back passengers with a reliable and dependable service.


Written Question
West Coast Main Line
Thursday 2nd March 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how long before a planned train service is due to go ahead does Avanti West Coast know there will be a shortage of train crew.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

Operators aim to understand and mitigate resource availability as far out as possible but circumstances such as training, sickness, other restrictions, and emergency releases as well as other external factors can change the position right up until the day of travel. Disruption is further exacerbated by inflexible working practices and terms and conditions, which is why workforce reforms are vital to build a better, more reliable railway for passengers.


Written Question
Rolling Stock
Thursday 2nd March 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much notice rail companies are required to give before altering the number of coaches on a train service.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

Train operating companies plan the formations for their rolling stock deployment, using their available fleet to match expected demand. Planned and unplanned adjustments to this may occur for a range of reasons such as engineering works, special events, faults or failures. When making the decision to alter the number of coaches on a train service, train operating companies provide advice to customer information systems wherever possible, but there is no stipulated requirement for a discrete notice period.


Written Question
Avanti West Coast: Travel Information
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much notice Avanti West Coast is required to provide before cancelling a train.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

The requirements in terms of notice in the event of a change to the timetable, including planned cancellations, vary depending on the circumstances of the change. They are set out in the contract, and particularly in Schedule 1.2A, which is publicly available and can be found on the Government website at the following link:

GOV.UK - West Coast Partnership 2019 rail franchise agreement


Written Question
Avanti West Coast: Standards
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Avanti West Coast trains have been cancelled due to staff shortages since 1 January 2023.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

Avanti West Coast has reported a total of 459 full cancelations compared to 11,325 planned services since 1 January 2023 attributed to staff shortages.


Written Question
Avanti West Coast: Standards
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Avanti West Coast trains have been delayed for more than 15 minutes since 1 January 2023.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

This information is publicly available through The Office of Rail and Road's data portal. It can be found at the following link:

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/.


Written Question
Avanti West Coast: Standards
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Avanti West Coast trains were delayed in each calendar month of 2022.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

This information is publicly available through The Office of Rail and Road's data portal. It can be found at:

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/.

Whilst the question refers to calendar months, railway performance information is presented in four-weekly rail periods as standard.


Written Question
Avanti West Coast: Standards
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Avanti West Coast trains were cancelled each calendar month of 2022.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

This information is publicly available through The Office of Rail and Road's data portal. It can be found at:

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/.

Whilst the question refers to calendar months, railway performance information is presented in four-weekly rail periods as standard.


Written Question
Highway Code
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of the changes made to the Highway Code in January 2022.

Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The changes to The Highway Code aim to improve safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders.

The percentage of road users reporting to know either a little or a lot about the Highway Code changes increased from 36% in January 2022 to 58% in August 2022, with 83% of road users having heard of the changes by August.


Written Question
Driving under Influence
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will publish estimates of drink-drive collisions and casualties more frequently than once a year.

Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

There are no plans to increase the frequency of publication at this stage, though this will be reviewed based on any feedback from users of the statistics in future, in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.