To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the (a) punctuality and reliability statistics and (b) passengers in excess numbers were for rail services on (i) the Portsmouth to Cardiff, (ii) Portsmouth to London via Guildford, (iii) Portsmouth to London via Basingstoke and (iv) Southampton to Havant routes in each month since January 2005. (180613)

The Department does not hold punctuality and reliability information broken down by service groups. Inquiries relating to data should be made to the relevant train operating companies.

For (a) (i):

Chief Operating Officer

First Great Western

Head Office

Milford House

1 Milford Street

Swindon

SN1 1HL

and (a) (ii) (iii) and (iv):

Managing Director

South West Trains

Friars Bridge Court

41-45 Blackfriars Road

London

SE1 8NZ

The numbers of passengers on rail services running in excess of capacity is shown in the following table:

The data in the table relate to the previous South West Trains franchise. Data for the successor Stagecoach South Western Trains Franchise in autumn 2007 are being collected and are currently not available.

The rail White Paper was published in July 2007. It sets out the resources we intend to make available to the rail industry and the increases in capacity, as well as safety and performance, that we expect the industry to deliver in return.

There are no specific requirements regarding levels of overcrowding on these routes. The Department's general requirements for overcrowding are that passengers should not be expected to stand for more than 20 minutes.