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Bus Services and Railways: Accountability

Asked by Alex MayerLabourDepartment for TransportTabled Answered 2 December 2025UIN 94811

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of moving rail functions from Transport Focus to the new passenger watchdog on integration between train and bus.

Answered by Keir Mather

The Passenger Watchdog will be grown out of Transport Focus, which will be given significantly stronger powers to become a more effective passenger champion in rail. Therefore, no rail functions are being moved out of Transport Focus. The watchdog will be multi-modal from the start and continue to cover Transport Focus’ existing watchdog functions covering trams, buses, coaches and England's strategic road network. This ensures it can monitor transport user experience across these modes.

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