Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 3 March (HL6266), what improvements Govia Thameslink Railway have implemented since the commencement of their franchise.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) have implemented numerous improvements since the commencement of their franchise. These include, but are not limited to:

• Extension of smart ticketing functionality meaning that ‘the Key’ smartcard is now available at an additional 80 stations, taking the total number of stations to 220;
• Oyster PAYG and CPAY has been extended to Gatwick Airport station;
• An increase in overnight services serving Luton Airport Parkway station;
• An increased number of Rail Enforcement Officers, with an additional 19 officers;
• An increase in customer information screens;
• A single source of customer information across website, app and stations;
• Access to radio microphones for all platform staff to improve information provision at stations;
• First to last staffing at an additional 25 Great Northern and Thameslink stations;
• Ordered new trains comprising 150 vehicles for the Great Northern Moorgate route to replace rolling stock from the 1970s;
• Services on the Moorgate branch in the evenings and at weekends;
• iPads for customer facing staff to improve information provision;
• 24 hour Twitter team;

In addition, the following key improvements are on course to be delivered by Govia Thameslink Railway in the coming months:

• Introduction of a new fleet of trains for the Gatwick Express – the first of which went into passenger service on 29 Feb;
• New state of the art Class 700 trains will start to be introduced across the GTR network from the spring;
• WiFi at 104 stations.

More details on the committed obligations and improvements GTR are contracted to deliver can be found in the Franchise Agreement which is available at the government website.