Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has had recent discussions with (a) Great Western Railway, (b) Cross Country Trains, (c) Greater Anglia, (d) LNER, (e) East Midlands Railway, (f) c2c, (g) Chiltern Railways, (h) GTR, (i) Northern Trains, (j) South Eastern, (k) South Western Railway, (l) TransPennine Express, (m) Avanti West Coast and (n) West Midlands Trains on the (i) quality and (ii) frequency of their train services; and whether he will take steps to mandate for those companies to negotiate the wages of railway staff.

The Department is in regular discussion with all 14 train operating companies about the quality and frequency of train services to ensure that operators are held to account for delivering services that meet new passenger travel patterns, are fit for the future, and carefully balance cost, capacity and performance.

The Rail Delivery Group are negotiating with Trade Unions on proposed pay offers at a national level on behalf of Train Operating Companies (the employers). Ministers’ role is to facilitate and support the ongoing discussions between the rail industry and Trade Unions regarding workforce reform and pay.