Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Kawczynski on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department took to publicise its consultation on the West Coast Mainline franchise.

Paul Maynard

The public consultation for the next InterCity West Coast (ICWC) rail franchise was launched on 10 May and enabled passengers to have their say on rail services. We want to make sure that passengers’ views are taken into consideration in developing the specification for the future franchise.

The consultation was widely publicised through a range of channels including posters, leaflets, websites, social media and key stakeholder communication channels. There was also coverage in the regional and trade press. My predecessor also wrote to all MPs, MSPs and AMs with constituencies on the ICWC route and the Scottish and Welsh Government Transport Secretaries to ensure they were informed of the consultation which serves their parts of the UK. The consultation document and associated material was published in English and Welsh both on the web and in hard copy.

We also organised a series of events for the public and stakeholders in Scotland, Wales and England for people to come along to speak to the project team about the consultation and ask any questions to help inform their response.

The consultation closed on 2 August and we are now reviewing and analysing the information. A summary of the responses will be published in due course.