Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the reported cancellation of over 2,500 trains in April puts Arriva Rail North in default of its franchise obligations.

Northern have advised that a large number of incidents relating to cancellations and performance in general are still ‘in dispute’, i.e. responsibility for the cause has not been allocated. They are confident that the root causes of many of the issues leading to cancellations or delays are not their responsibility. The Department therefore needs to wait until this process is complete before being able to decide whether action under the Franchise Agreement is appropriate.

If the Secretary of State is satisfied that the Franchisee is contravening or is likely to contravene any term of the Franchise Agreement he may serve a Remedial Plan Notice on the Franchisee requiring it to produce a Remedial Plan.

If the Secretary of State for Transport is satisfied with the Remedial Plan he may require the Franchisee to enter into a Remedial Agreement to implement the matters identified in the Remedial Plan. A material non-compliance with the Remedial Agreement would be an Event of Default.