Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to use discounted ticketing initiatives to (a) increase passenger utilisation on lightly used services and (b) reduce the volume of trains operating with significant spare capacity for Great British Railways services.

Great British Railways (GBR) will be empowered to deliver industry-wide modernisation and reform of the complex and fragmented fares landscape inherited from privatisation. This will enable GBR to simplify the ticketing system and make it easy for passengers to find the right fare. GBR will offer us the opportunity to go further with optimising train services and driving up utilisation. Through GBR’s directing mind function, services and timetables will be developed in a coherent fashion that drives up network performance and improves the journey experience.

We are also already driving forward improvements in advance of GBR. For example, we are supporting LNER to deliver their ‘Simpler Fares’ trial, which is testing an easier to understand fares structure and demand-based pricing on parts of their long-distance network. The aim is to improve the passenger experience by reducing crowding, making better use of capacity and making travel more comfortable for passengers.