Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure private train operating companies are held to account for their performance during the transition to rail nationalisation; and what steps she will take to ensure that performance standards are enforced.

The Secretary of State for Transport will not tolerate poor performance and will continue to hold all operators to account through a range of measures, including during the transition of services to a public sector operator.

All operators will continue to go through an annual planning process with the Department to agree plans for changes to service specifications, performance improvements and other deliverables. If an operator’s poor performance means that contractual conditions for early termination are met, Ministers will not hesitate to take decisive action.