Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve toilet facilities on coastal rail routes in the South East.

Operators are required through their Franchise Agreements to achieve challenging satisfaction targets across a range of key measures which include toilet facilities at stations and on trains. The Department closely monitors this, and if these targets are missed, they must invest in improvements for passengers. Furthermore, toilet facilities at some stations are being improved as part of the £15m Passenger Benefit Fund, that was established by GTR following the May 2018 timetable disruption.

Toilet improvements have been requested by over half of the coastal stations as a high priority as part of the Passenger Benefit Fund. The Department will review these requests using its due diligence and approval process. The aim is to progress to implementation to realise the passenger benefits as soon as practicably possible.