Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) reliability and (b) punctuality of CrossCountry services operating between Birmingham, Leicester and Stansted Airport.

CrossCountry train services were not reliable enough in 2024 and the operator was subject to a Remedial Plan from August 2024 to March 2025. Since January 2025, CrossCountry train service performance has generally improved, although issues remain on Sundays. The Rail Minister has met CrossCountry Directors who are well aware that there is more for them to do. A new senior management team at CrossCountry is taking steps to address underlying issues within the business. We expect to see improvements for passengers, and will continue to hold the operator to account for delivery of the contractual performance benchmarks.