Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the levels of overcrowding on Great Western Railway trains from Tiverton Parkway; and whether she plans to take steps to reduce overcrowding on those trains.

Officials continually monitor the performance of Great Western Railway services, including instances of overcrowding, and actively hold operators to account through their contracts when they run less capacity than agreed. The Rail Minister additionally meets with Train Operating Companies to review their performance. We work closely with Great Western Railway to match supply to demand within operational and financial constraints including the provision of additional summer services. Great Western Railway is also exploring opportunities to increase the capacity of its rolling stock fleet.