Northern
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve the (a) reliability of Northern Trains and (b) communications on the impacts of delays and cancellations on passengers.
Answered by Simon Lightwood
Ministers have made very clear to Northern’s management and the Department for Transport Operator that its current performance is not acceptable, and that is why we issued it with a notice of breach of contract, requiring it to produce a detailed plan to improve its services, including moving to 90 per cent of all its trains arriving within 3 minutes of timetable and cancellations below 3 per cent.
One significant issue is a continuing dispute with conductors in the North West, which has been going for seven years and which the last Government did nothing to resolve. We are supporting Northern to step up its discussions with RMT about bringing Sundays into the working week and other reforms. We will be watching this closely to make sure this work continues at pace.
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →