Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to tackle the practice of stop-skipping on the Great Northern line at Arlesey.

Omitting scheduled station stops (‘skip-stopping’) is used in exceptional circumstances where there is disruption to restore the service to schedule for the peaks as quickly as possible.

We expect the operator to make the correct operational decisions which balance the needs of passengers who are inconvenienced by taking stops out of service against the wider advantage to passengers of getting services back on schedule as soon as possible. Operators are expected to communicate this to passengers in good time where possible, and to provide affected passengers with advice on the alternative options to complete their journey.

Officials meet regularly with GTR to discuss performance and the operator has confirmed that it tries to protect stations like Arlesey where there are no alternative modes of transport. Where trains do miss these stations GTR has a procedure to try and ensure that the next fast service does call there.