MPs have secured a major concession from ministers in their attempts to secure transparency over rail company performance, including the immediate release of performance data for struggling Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR).
Following criticism from the Transport Select Committee, rail minister Paul Maynard has written to committee chair Louise Ellman, stating that the Department for Transport (DfT) ‘will be publishing the actual performance against the contractual benchmarks for each rail franchise every four weeks’.
Louise Ellman chairing the Transport Select Committee
Mr Maynard pointed out that this represents ‘a new approach to franchise performance, and existing franchise agreements may need to be amended to account for this change’.
Ms Ellman said: ‘I am pleased that the Department has accepted the case for greater transparency made by my Committee.
‘As a Committee we were continuously frustrated by the lack of information on the performance of individual rail companies during our recent inquires. Govia Thameslink Railway was a particular concern, given the abysmal service that commuters have been forced to endure.
‘The Department has told us that it will now publish performance figures against contractual obligations for every rail franchise, on a regular basis. This should give commuters real insight into the quality of the service they pay for. It will help us understand how the Department monitors the contracts it lets.’
She added: ‘There is a great deal of work still to do but this is a positive start.’
Mr Maynard also provided tables showing the performance of GTR for the past two years. As he acknowledged, they show that the company was ‘in excess of breach and default levels for cancellations and short formation of peak trains’ over the summer, even judged against the less stringent cancellation standards of the company’s ‘remedial plan’.
For example, during the period from 21 August to 17 September 2016, the company cancelled 4.79% of trains, nearly double the remedial plan breach figure of 2.42% and significantly higher than the default figure of 2.75%.
However, Mr Maynard pointed out that ‘GTR has submitted a force majeure claim for official and unofficial industrial action undertaken by drivers and conductors on Southern services’.
He said that DfT officials are carrying out the ‘considerable and complex task’ of assessing the force majeure (exceptional circumstances) claim, expected to be completed by mid-November, after which the transport secretary would ‘make a decision on next steps’.
Ms Ellman said her committee would be monitoring this process.
Mr Maynard also appeared before the committee on Monday (7 November), as part of its inquiry into Rail franchising.
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