§ Jackie BallardTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what recent124W representations he has received about the performance of Great Western trains on the Penzance to Paddington route; and if he will make a statement. [45516]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonMy Department and the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising have received some 90 representation about the performance of Great Western's train services generally since the beginning of 1998.
Great Western has experienced a number of operational and infrastructure problems in recent months which have resulted in an unacceptable quality of service to passengers. OPRAF monitors performance and has agreed with the company an action plan to address the causes of the problems, involving Railtrack as appropriate. To provide further incentive to improve, a performance regime was introduced on 1 April under which Great Western pays a penalty to the Franchising Director of £250 in the event of a train being 20 minutes late, £500 if 30 minutes late or if it does not operate the full journey, and £1,000 if cancelled altogether. This is the first time that such a performance regime has been applied to an InterCity train operator.