Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times train signalling equipment has failed in each of the last 12 months.

According to data recorded by Network Rail, there were 12,687 train signalling equipment failures between 8 September 2022 and 7 September 2023, which is equivalent to 1,057 failures per month on average. The figure for 2022-23 is comparable to recent years and lower than the average number of signal failures over the past decade.

Network Rail are undertaking a number of actions to reduce instances of signalling equipment failures on the network. This includes replacing old and obsolete equipment as part of their renewals work, undertaking reliability analysis to identify assets that are failing prematurely to enable targeted remedial action, applying predictive technology to identify the risk of failures, monitoring trends to identify underperforming assets so these can be replaced, and reviewing staff training to ensure staff are in the best position to manage and mitigate signalling failures. Moving to digital signalling, such as on the East Coast Digital Programme, will also lead to increased infrastructure reliability.