Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 6 February (HL13059), on how many days since 10 August 2018 have London North Eastern Railway cancelled trains in either direction between Leeds and London in addition to the pre-planned cancellations.

During the period between 13 August 2018 (from whence a small number of Leeds services were removed from the timetable) until 1 February 2019 (Monday to Friday only), LNER operated the full timetable on the Leeds to London (both directions) route on 65 of the 123 days. This means that on the other 58, there was at least 1 cancellation of either a Leeds to London or London to Leeds service.

This represents an improvement in operating the full timetable on that route from 31% (in the previous 21 May to 10 August 2018 period) to 53%.

Additionally, the overall number of cancellations halved after implementing the timetable with planned cancellations meaning a more robust service offer for passengers. Between May and July 2018 so called TOC-on-Self cancellations (ie those cancellations within LNER’s control versus external factors) across all LNER services were averaging 89 per period, whilst cancellations between August 2018 and February 2019 were reduced to an average of 44 per period. The provision of extra resilience by implementing the pre-planned cancellations is ensuring a more robust and predictable service for passengers.