Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the punctuality of Southeastern train services since 11 December 2022.

There has been significant disruption to Southeastern services over recent months driven by industrial action, multiple infrastructure incidents and mobilising the new timetable introduced on 11 December.

Southeastern and Network Rail have established a Joint Task Force and have already made several changes, including operating additional services, and lengthening some trains where demand is higher than expected in the peaks. This work continues and will provide further tactical interventions as well as focusing on improving underlying performance. There is evidence that it is having a positive impact with underlying performance on an improving trend in recent weeks.

My officials and I continue to monitor Southeastern performance very closely whilst Southeastern will continue to keep stakeholders informed of developments.