Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Thursday 18th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman]

I am very sorry to hear the news of the crash last week. I would be delighted, as always, to meet my hon. Friend and Kent County Council. She should know this is a topic of great interest to me and the Department. Indeed, I met freight operators only this week in part to discuss these very issues.

[Sarah Jones (Croydon Central) (Lab)]

8. What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of passenger rail usage.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

22. What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of passenger rail usage.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Joseph Johnson)]

Rail passenger journeys have more than doubled in the past 20 years, and journey numbers are at their highest level since the 1920s.

[Sarah Jones]

Journeys on the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise fell for the first time last year as commuters shunned its shoddy services. The management contract given by DFT means the state has to shoulder a £90 million loss as a result, and Office of Rail and Road figures show that passenger numbers are starting to fall across the country. Is the franchise model sustainable if that continues?

[Joseph Johnson]

Passengers are switching away from using traditional season tickets to using pay-as-you-go travel. They are choosing more flexible ticket options to suit their lifestyle. Changing travel behaviour may mean that historical assumptions about the number of journeys taken per season ticket are no longer appropriate. Although the number of passenger journeys is reported to have decreased recently, it does not necessarily mean that fewer people are using the railway network.