Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure that the transfer of Southeastern to public ownership will improve service reliability at Gillingham and Rainham stations.

Southeastern has been in public ownership since Oct 2021. Overall, Southeastern is performing well above the industry average for both reliability and punctuality. In fact, they are currently ranked fourth out of 14 DfT managed train operators for both Cancellations and T-3 (% of the station stops within 3 minutes of scheduled time) and their latest results for both measures are up year-on-year, showing they are continuing to improve through initiatives across their network, including the routes serving Gillingham and Rainham, such as:

• Delivering £306m of investment to renew and enhance shared railway infrastructure to help keep trains on time.
• Investing in more fault-finding equipment so problems can be fixed before they happen.
• Working with British Transport Police and using drones and AI-powered cameras to quickly detect and prevent people from trespassing on the railway.