Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) number and (b) rate of train cancellations since the nationalisation of South Western Railway.

The average rate of cancellations on SWR has increased from 3.5 per cent just before entering public ownership to 3.8 per cent in the most recent period.

SWR inherited significant traincrew shortages from the previous private operator, which has contributed to higher levels of cancellations, alongside training drivers to drive the new Arterio train fleet. Under public ownership, driver recruitment has been accelerated, with SWR now training up to 12 new drivers per period to reduce the risk of traincrew‑related cancellations.

Under private ownership, South Western Railway’s (SWR’s) new Arterio fleet were due to be delivered between 2019-2021. The trains were delayed under the previous operator due to issues initially caused by manufacturing and software issues and then by issues including driver training and platform infrastructure readiness.

The publicly owned SWR is now finally introducing the new trains to offer increased capacity and comfort to passengers. SWR now have 38 Arterios in service in comparison to the 7 Arterios pre-public ownership. The average rate of cancellations has increased slightly which is in line with regular variation during the introduction of major fleet upgrades. Technical issues affecting train reliability are expected to improve over time as teething issues are resolved. Overall, operators currently in public ownership remain more reliable on average than those in private ownership.