PUNCTUALITY OF TRAIN SERVICES

That this House finds it unacceptable that the southbound Virgin train services from Manchester Piccadilly to Stockport are timetabled to take eight minutes but the northbound services are allowed fifteen minutes or more; notes that this padding of the timetable leads to an inaccurate representation of the punctuality of Virgin trains; further notes that the performance, punctuality and reliability of Virgin trains and others is further obscured by only measuring punctuality at the final destination of journeys and not at every stop; believes that claims from the train operating companies of improved punctuality should be viewed with extreme scepticism; and calls on the Government to regulate the setting of train timetables.