Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to tackle the driver shortages disrupting the Marston Vale Line run by London North Eastern Railway.

In common with other train operators, the Omicron COVID-19 variant has significantly affected staff availability on London Northwestern Railway (LNR). As a result, LNR has temporarily focused its reduced resources on providing a resilient train service on those routes with the most passengers and where bus replacement would be impractical.

The inconvenience to passengers on the Marston Vale line is regrettable, and we will be working with LNR to ensure that the train service is restored as soon as it can be reliably provided.