Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 15 March (HL6698), how they intend to evaluate whether Govia Thameslink Railway has met its franchise commitment to "make improvements to passenger experience both on trains and at stations", and how in particular the effect on passengers of reduced ticket office hours will be evaluated; and whether they will invite interested parliamentarians to a meeting to discuss Govia Thameslink Railway's performance against its franchise commitments.

There are a number of contractual obligations within Govia Thameslink Railway’s franchise agreement designed to improve the passenger experience both on trains and at stations and there are processes in place to monitor and review compliance with these obligations. To date, Govia Thameslink Railway have delivered over 60 of these obligations, which have included the extension of Oyster Pay as You Go and Contactless Payments to Gatwick Airport, increased overnight services to Luton Airport Parkway, the introduction of weekend and late evening services on the Moorgate branch, the staffing of an additional 25 stations from the first to last train and the issuing of tablets to customer facing staff to improve passenger information.

A separate ticketless travel monitoring regime is in place which incentivises Govia Thameslink Railway to reduce ticketless travel and maximise the collection of passenger revenue. In relation to the noble Lord’s point about meeting interested parliamentarians to discuss GTR’s performance, I would direct him to contact the my Hon Friend, the Rail Minister’s (Claire Perry MP) office to arrange this as I’m sure she would be happy to meet.