Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage Southern Rail to improve the (a) punctuality and (b) passenger capacity of services (i) calling at and (ii) departing from (A) Wallington, (B) Hackbridge, (C) Carshalton and (D) Carshalton Beeches railway stations.
The Department monitors each train operator’s overall performance against its performance benchmarks (cancellations, delay minutes and capacity) regularly and there are clear actions set out in the franchise agreement should performance drop below what is expected. The Department is committed to working with Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) in driving punctuality higher and, in partnership with Network Rail and other industry partners, GTR is focused on continuous improvement through the joint On Time Railway initiative.