Rail performance data will be displayed at stations to show passengers how services are working, the Transport Secretary has said.
Louise Haigh said the move will allow the public to “hold us to account” as the Government seeks to reform services after it inherited a railway that was “failing its passengers”.
Ms Haigh also said there are “early signs” of improvement across several services, including London North Eastern Railway (LNER), Northern Rail and TransPennine Express, but noted it will “take time to pass all the benefits on to passengers” following a reset of industrial relations.
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In a statement to the House of Commons, Ms Haigh accused the previous Conservative government of allowing service cancellations to reach a “10-year high” while punctuality was “consistently inconsistent” across the network.
She said: “Back in 2015 cancellations represented around 2% of all services but thanks to our inheritance of extraordinary failure that doubled to 4% when the last government left office.”
Ms Haigh said the Government is pushing ahead with the “biggest overhaul” of the railways in more than 30 years, including improved integration between track and train.
She added that settling pay disputes following two years of disruption would allow the Government to “move forward with long overdue negotiations on workforce reform, bringing our railways into the 21st century.”
Ms Haigh told MPs: “We are putting passengers first and today I can inform the House that since the resolution of the LNER driver dispute, we have seen green shoots emerging with the number of LNER cancellations falling.
“Not only have cancellations due to a lack of driver resource dropped to near zero as a direct consequence of getting around the table with unions, but revenue is £15 million higher for the recent rail periods this year versus the same periods last year, overall cancellations are down from 7% to 5% and LNER are running 100 more train services in the last four weeks than in the comparable period last year.
“Elsewhere, passengers will see a tangible impact on reliability in Northern Rail trains thanks to our agreement on rest day working. Hundreds more driver shifts have been covered this weekend, cutting cancellations now and in the long run.
“At TransPennine Express, operator-caused on-the-day cancellations have averaged around 2% in the last year compared to 5% in the year before they were taken into public ownership.
“On CrossCountry we took immediate steps to implement a remedial plan to reduce their cancellations and get services back on track. Its reduced timetable has brought greater stability and I expect even greater reliability as the full timetable returns today.
“These are early signs of what happens when a government gets a grip and puts passengers at the heart of decision-making. Resetting industrial relations is already having a direct impact on better services but it will take time to pass all the benefits on to passengers.
“We have to be clear-eyed about the problems but we are committed to full transparency and I can announce today that we will be fully transparent with passengers by displaying performance data at stations to demonstrate how the railway is working and allow the public to hold us to account as we deliver change.”
The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill, which is likely to clear Parliament in the coming weeks, is designed to help nationalise train operation in Britain.
The Bill would ensure that appointing a public sector train operator as existing contracts expire becomes the default position rather than a last resort.
Shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon said it is a “fair criticism” to say that a number of operators have “consistently underperformed”, adding the Tories had taken action to improve performance.
He said: “It is disappointing that the Government has taken forward its plan for the effective nationalisation of the rail operators through the end of private rail operator franchising despite all of the evidence pointing to the fact that this will be contrary to the aim of improving rail performance.”
Mr Bacon said it has been necessary in some cases to bring rail operators into public control for a short period but added it has “not made the difference on performance that the Government would have us believe”.
He said: “For example, (Ms Haigh) specifically mentioned delays to the TransPennine Express referencing a decrease in cancellations since the operator was taken into public ownership. But she made no reference to delays.
“Data from the Office of Rail and Road show in the four years prior to the train operator being under public control passengers faced an average of 8,130 delay minutes per month. But from period two 2023/24, when the operator was brought into public ownership, up until period four of 2024/25, average monthly delays have increased by 1,677 minutes to 9,807 per month.”
He added: “Public ownership is not the panacea that (Ms Haigh) claims.”
Ms Haigh replied: “Public ownership is not a silver bullet and hence why we’re setting out a substantial package of reforms.”
The Transport Secretary also said there is a future for open access operators and highlighted the work of Lumo and Grand Central, adding: “We’re very happy to continue working with them.”
