General debate 4/7/17 – The Chris Gibb Report: Improvement to Southern Railway

On 22 June the Government published the report by Chris Gibb, a non-executive director at Network Rail and former chief operating officer of Virgin Rail Group, into the performance of the Southern Rail part of the wider Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise, and advice on how to deliver improvements.

Mr Gibb was appointed by the Secretary of State, Chris Grayling, on 1 Setember 2016.

The attached paper sets out a brief recent history of Southern Rail, the context of the Gibb Report, its contents and responses to it. Further reading is set out at the end.