Jessica Morden Jessica Morden - Labour MP for Newport East, PPS to Keir Starmer and Shadow Minister for Wales
Today I asked the Transport Minister to ensure that the new Great Western franchise should provide adequate numbers of carriages. This arose because of the complaints I have received about insufficient carriages on some trains through Severn Tunnel Junction.
Jessica Morden (Newport East, Labour)
What recent discussions his Department has had with FirstGroup on service performance on the Great Western main line.
Patrick McLoughlin (The Secretary of State for Transport; Derbyshire Dales, Conservative)
Officials hold meetings with First Great Western every four weeks to discuss franchise performance. Ministers and officials regularly meet senior figures from across the industry at a range of forums to discuss current issues, including performance. We have made it clear that we expect the industry to do its utmost to deliver the level of performance for which it is funded
Will the Secretary of State ensure that the new Great Western main line franchise takes into account the very real present overcrowding problems in south-east Wales, and ensure that the operator provides an adequate number of carriages to service demand now and on future forecasts?
Patrick McLoughlin (The Secretary of State for Transport; Derbyshire Dales, Conservative)
One of the things that I have done with that franchise is to make arrangements and instruct the operator, as it is doing, to convert first-class carriages into standard-class carriages. That will increase capacity a little on the line. The line has been very successful overall. In 2010-11, the number of passengers using the franchise was 90.5 million; on the latest figures available, for 2013-14, the number was 99.7 million. We are seeing such a rise across the whole rail franchise sector.