Andy McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to increase passenger carrying capacity on Inter City West Coast services between cities in the West Midlands.

Paul Maynard

We expect potential bidders for the next Inter City West Coast (ICWC) franchise to plan their train services to meet the needs of their passengers and the wider network. To make sure the Department’s specification best reflects the needs of the passengers and stakeholders of the franchise a public consultation on the franchise was run from 10 May to 2 August this year. This sought the public’s and stakeholders’ views and priorities on a number of areas of the franchise specification. The consultation acknowledged that capacity for additional train services on the West Coast Mainline is limited and sought views on how the franchise could cater for growth.

The responses will help inform us about what we will ask for in the tender documents from the future franchise operator and will be provided to bidders for the franchise to inform their responses. We are now reviewing and analysing the consultation responses and will publish a summary in due course.