Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of passenger demand for later evening trains between Waterloo and Yeovil on Mondays to Saturdays.

The franchisee (SWR) is expected to plan its train service to meet forecast demand in accordance with its obligations under its franchise agreement. The franchise agreement sets a minimum train service specification that is required to be met and forms the basis for the timetable. Timetable bids for later trains than currently operate would be assessed by Network Rail against factors such as the access that they require to undertake routine planned infrastructure maintenance activities, for example.