argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I fully expect Stephen Glaister’s review to look at all the players in this, including my Department. The industry readiness board set up by my Department to assess the process of introducing the new Thameslink timetable recommended in May that the timetable could go ahead. When experts are called in for advice and they advise us to do something it is generally a good idea to listen to them.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Oliver Heald (Conservative, Centre-right): At Letchworth station this morning, I spoke to passengers who have suffered great delays and many cancellations, children going to school whose train had been cancelled—one of them in tears—and workers who have been told, "You can’t keep on being late like this." Is it not time that Govia Thameslink Railway actually produced the timetable, the service and the reliability of information that those people—my constituents—deserve? What is going to be done to encourage it to get on with this and provide that service quickly?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): The No. 1 priority is to restore a reliable timetable, and I have been clear that GTR has an urgent duty to do so. There is unquestionably a large question mark over its future, but it needs to sort the problem out as quickly as possible to have any chance of surviving in the rail industry.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Michael Fallon (Conservative, Centre-right): Is my right hon. Friend aware that two villages in my constituency, Eynsford and Shoreham, are now virtually cut off? Commuters cannot get up to London, and their children cannot get down to school in Sevenoaks. Will he use the authority of his office to persuade Southeastern to stop at least one or two of its peak-hour fast services during the current disruption to give those two villages a chance of normal life?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I discussed that very issue with members of Rail North’s board last week. I am profoundly unhappy about this. I have indicated to Arriva that I am not prepared to accept more than the current two weeks and that it should use that two-week period to do engineering work, which will be necessary over the coming months, so that we are not wasting time when a bus service is in place. I have been clear to Arriva that doing this over the long term is simply unacceptable and that it has to get the trains back very quickly.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Nicholas Soames (Conservative, Centre-right): I make a respectful suggestion to my right hon. Friend, which is that the rail industry readiness board should be taken quietly outside and disposed of. Is he aware that the rail service to East Grinstead, in which he has always taken an interest, has finally fallen over completely, that trains from Haywards Heath, Wivelsfield and Burgess Hill are shorter and more overcrowded, that people’s private lives are being destroyed and that this whole thing is an absolute disaster that must be put right?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): This problem needs to be fixed as quickly as possible. I respectfully remind the Opposition that a private rail company is involved. Opposition Members keep telling me that we should nationalise it and have the Government running the trains, so they cannot have it both ways.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Iain Aitken Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): Enormous investment has gone into the Thameslink programme, with a new fleet of rolling stock and a state-of-the-art digital signalling system. Can the Secretary of State assure me that these new systems are working as planned and that the cause of the problem is not a technical failing?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The real frustration is that this is a consequence of major investment programmes and the delivery at the end of those programmes has gone wrong. The thing I find most frustrating about all this, and I absolutely feel for every single passenger who has waited for a cancelled train in the past week—I get the train every day, and I am as fed up with this as everyone else—is that this is the consequence of a change that resulted from a massive investment programme in the railways. We should now be seeing the fruit of that investment programme. We are not yet seeing it, and we have to make sure that we see it pretty quickly.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I absolutely understand the pressures on the hon. Gentleman’s line. Part of the objective of this upgrade is to deliver longer trains and more trains, and it is a huge frustration to me that that has not happened. We have to make sure it happens as quickly as possible.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): It is too early to work through that. I am more focused at the moment on getting services back to normal. The companies will undoubtedly bear a cost from this but, as far as I am concerned, the most important thing is making sure that services are back to normal and that passengers are compensated, and the companies will have to meet the cost of that.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I seem to remember that when I took over there were real problems with Southern metro services at other stations in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. Those problems have now been improved and sorted, and those services are running very well—not across the whole Southern network, but across the Southern metro network. We now need to sort this problem out.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Abimbola Afolami (Conservative, Centre-right): I have spoken to the Secretary of State over many weeks and months about the train issues in my constituency of Hitchin and Harpenden. I know the inquiry he has announced will look into culpability on this matter, but how much more evidence do we need that the senior management of Network Rail and GTR are incompetent, incapable and inept? How long can they go on?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course I understand the frustration that the hon. Gentleman experiences. The irony is that these timetable problems have resulted from a planned expansion in services for his constituents and others across the north. It was designed to deliver thousands of extra train services for people across the north of England. It has not worked today and it must work soon.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative, Centre-right): My constituents at Garforth, Micklefield and Woodlesford stations are agog at how bad the trains have got, and I lay the blame for a lot of this at the door of Network Rail, not the Secretary of State. There have been plenty of opportunities and plenty of promises made over decades; I was using this train line 20 years ago, and it was rubbish then and it is rubbish now. What can he do to ensure that Network Rail gets a grip of the situation and delivers on the promises it makes?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): What we have to see is the completion of the investment programme, the delivery of the new trains and, above all, the sorting out of the timetable. Every train in the north of England is being replaced with either a brand new train or a completely refurbished one. The new trains are due to start arriving later this year. We have big investments taking place. The transpennine rail upgrade, at £3 billion, is the largest investment; it is part of the next rail infrastructure investment programme. It is just hugely frustrating that what has been done so far has yet to deliver the improvements it should to passengers and has actually made things worse. That must stop, and stop quickly.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): The only thing I would point out, respectfully, to the hon. Lady is that she has just called for the transfer of rail services from Southeastern to Arriva, which runs Northern, while other people are telling me that Arriva is not capable of running Northern. That is the reality of what she is arguing for.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Crispin Jeremy Rupert Blunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not envy my right hon. Friend and neighbour in making this statement today, but I know that he understands the position of Redhill and Epsom only too well, because he has been to visit Redhill station and see the infrastructure improvements that he is putting in place. However, my constituents were promised an improved service in 2014, after the London Bridge investment and for the new timetable in 2018, but even if the timetable was working properly they would have a worse service than they were promised four years ago. They have the privilege of paying the "Redhill hump" for being just outside the London zoning. My right hon. Friend and his Department are part of the industry, because they get the fare income generated under the GTR franchise, so will he please look at being part of the industry and not just dumping the issue of compensation entirely? Will he rapidly ask the rail Minister to bring forward plans to deal with the Redhill hump? Redhill services have had more cancellations than those anywhere else.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I say to Members on both sides of the Chamber that some places have undoubtedly been inappropriately disadvantaged by the timetable change. The rail Minister and I are happy to sit down in person with colleagues who represent those places to talk through how we can address those issues in future timetable changes. That offer is open to Members from all parties. We have seen a large number of colleagues today to talk about more short-term issues, and we are happy to have similar conversations as we plan for further timetable changes.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I would be delighted to fix it now. It is worth reminding the House that the Northern franchise is a partnership between my Department, Transport for the North and the Northern leaders. It was designed by all of us to deliver precisely the improvements that the hon. Lady describes. It is a huge frustration to me, and I suspect to everyone in the north, that that has not happened, and I assure her that I will do everything that I can. I trust that through the Rail North partnership we will deliver the improvements that have been promised and that her constituents deserve.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Nadine Vanessa Dorries (Conservative, Centre-right): My constituents pay one of the highest prices for season tickets, out of taxed income. For more than 13 years, I have been complaining on their behalf as they have encountered one crisis after another, including under the previous Government for the first five of those 13 years. This is another crisis with which my constituents have had to deal. Will the Secretary of State please use his good offices to tell Thameslink to stop cancelling, with little or no notice, stops at Flitwick and Harlington and continuing the service on to Bedford, where people are stranded and find it very difficult to get home? Will he also insist that once trains are running normally, the compensation scheme is not inadequate and does not mean one month’s free rail use, but is more like six months’ free rail use on people’s season tickets? I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement that 24 trains an hour will be running soon, but when? We need them as soon as possible.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I completely agree with my hon. Friend, and I will make sure that an appropriate compensation package is in place. First and foremost, we have to make sure that there is a service on which people can rely. The thing that I think is currently most frustrating people is not being sure whether the train is going to turn up when they go to the station to catch it. The most important thing right now is for both Northern and GTR to deliver a service on which passengers can depend, so that they know that when a train is due it is actually going to turn up.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I am prepared to be completely transparent over this. I have instructed Stephen Glaister to go through everything, including the conversations with my Department, and that it should be made public. I have no doubt that the Transport Committee will do the same. I am aware of nothing that I would want to be kept hidden. I want everybody to understand what has gone wrong and I want lessons to be learned. The most important thing is that we make sure that this can never happen again. That is my No. 1 priority.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Robert James MacGillivray Neill (Conservative, Centre-right): My constituents have suffered in exactly the same way as those of many Members. Frankly, they were misled when they were told that there would be an improved service after London Bridge was sorted, because there has not been and will not be, even when the timetable works as it should. More to the point, my right hon. Friend says that these are consequences of change, and I understand that, but is not the whole point of competent management that people are supposed to anticipate and deal with consequences? When Network Rail puts out a statement saying that "we are looking at understanding the root cause", it sounds as if it is running a seminar rather than a railway. Will my right hon. Friend get rid of these incompetents, now?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Government Operations
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I assure my hon. Friend that I am sufficiently angry at what has happened that anyone who has found to be negligent in this matter should not carry on in the job they are doing now. It is simply not acceptable to have a situation in which people are in operational control of something and completely fail to deliver. The whole point of setting up an independent review is to understand exactly what has gone wrong so that lessons can be learned.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): The answer to the hon. Lady’s question is that a temporary timetable is being put in place on Northern that should stabilise the timetable this week, and then, step by step, it will start to put back in place the extra services that were promised post May.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): For at least three years now, my constituents have on occasion been unable to get to work, unable to reach hospital appointments and unable to get home in the evening to see loved ones. GTR has presided over an incompetent railway network for far too long. Can the Secretary of State confirm that if the Glaister report finds that GTR has been negligent in the handling of this timetable introduction, which has certainly been a fiasco, and that if GTR fails urgently to take the steps required to fix it, the measures he is contemplating will include removing its franchise?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): The Great Western modernisation is delivering new trains and a faster service, and by the end of this year it will deliver an improved timetable. There have been teething problems with the introduction of the new trains, but anyone who has travelled on the new trains in which this Government are investing on the Great Western route will say that they are a step in the right direction.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Matthew James Offord (Conservative, Centre-right): This really is an appalling situation that we should have seen coming down the line given the history of the train operating companies. I have emails from my constituents that complain about a lack of communication from Govia Thameslink. They say that the refund procedures are lengthy and difficult to navigate and that the timetable implementation has simply not worked. Will the Secretary of State give serious consideration to introducing a short deadline to ensure that GTR in particular brings the service up to an acceptable standard, or finding another train provider that will do so?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very clear that I expect GTR to deliver an improvement to the current situation as a matter of real urgency. If it does not do so, it will lack the credibility to continue as operator.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Timothy Paul Loughton (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sure that I speak on behalf of thousands of commuters in Sussex when I say that this must be the end of the line for the GTR franchise. We were constantly assured that the driver shortage had been addressed, but now we are told that the problem is the wrong type of drivers on the line. Will the Secretary of State assure me that the compensation scheme will be a realistic one, that it will be paid for not by his Department this time but by the train operators, and that, within six months maximum of the Glaister review reporting, he will be in a position to take back that franchise?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): One of the things I want the Glaister report to do is identify why the train companies did not tell us that there was a sufficient problem to delay or halt the introduction of the timetable.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Henry Edward Millar Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): What my constituent commuters and, indeed, I—as a passenger—want to know is, why does Govia Thameslink have such a lack of planning and future foresight? There are to be major engineering works on the London to Brighton main line in October this year and February next year. What assurances can I have for my constituents travelling from Three Bridges, Crawley, Ifield and Gatwick Airport stations that proper planning will be in place to ensure that those engineering works, which are welcome, do not cause undue disruption?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I will ensure that the rail Minister sits down with my hon. Friend and has a conversation with all those involved to make sure that those works are not an issue. As he knows, there has been necessary investment to sort out problems on the Brighton main line, but we cannot have the works causing inappropriate levels of disruption. There will inevitably be some disruption, because engineering works cannot be done without it, but we have to ensure that they are done in the right way.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I simply say that we have teams of people whose job it is to assure this. They did not see this situation coming; nor did the train operators. The Glaister review is necessary because this should not have been able to happen.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Heidi-Suzanne Allen (Conservative, Centre-right): If GTR is telling the Secretary of State that things are getting better in my constituency of South Cambridgeshire, it is not being truthful to him. The experience of my constituents—and, indeed, my experience of travelling in today—is that things are getting worse. Network Rail may hold the lion’s share of the responsibility, but the operators have a role to play too. Why on earth did they not flag at minus three weeks that that period of time was not going to be long enough? The operators clearly told the Secretary of State that everything was fine, but last week they told me that it was not and that three weeks would never have been long enough, so which one of us are they lying to I ask the Secretary of State for two actions. First, he says that the emergency timetable that has been implemented today would take us back to pre-May levels. It is not doing so at all; it is actually worse. By the end of this week, can we please aim to have the pre-May timetable back in place? Secondly, we have heard about compensation for Northern passengers being akin to that of Southern last year. I have to tell the Secretary of State that the GTR performance up and down the line in my constituency is as bad, and we should be considered for the same levels of compensation.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I will certainly take on board my hon. Friend’s points. I hope and expect, and am insisting, that we see stabilisation during the course of this week. What matters is that people know which trains are going to run, and that they know a train will be there when they turn up. That is the most important priority, certainly on her line.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Fiona Claire Bruce (Conservative, Centre-right): Northern Rail has changed or reduced the already limited rush hour services between Congleton and Manchester to such an extent that my constituents say that they are having to face the pressured M6 and M56 commute by car, and that this timetabling change may even breach Northern’s service level agreement. Will the Secretary of State take up with Northern Rail this wholly inadequate rail service for a growing town, and will he require improvement?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said a moment ago, the rail Minister and I are happy to talk to individual colleagues on both sides of the House to look at places where there are issues of this kind. There are rolling timetable changes each year. If we can look at cases where a town has genuinely been disadvantaged, we can see what we can do to sort that out.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I have already asked the industry to look at whether it can restore some of the East Midlands Trains services to ease the pressure on Bedford in the interim period, while this disruption is happening. It seems a logical thing to do, given that the train paths are not being occupied by Thameslink at the moment.