Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 20 July 2017, on rail update, HCWS85, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of (a) commissioning and (b) maintaining (i) electric trains which would have been used on the lines which no longer will be electrified and (ii) the bi-mode trains which will now be used on those lines in pence per vehicles mile.

The precise commissioning and maintenance costs of trains depends on the model of the trains assumed. The Government has been clear that it will electrify lines where it delivers both genuine benefits to passengers and value to the taxpayer.

In considering the change in its approach to improving rail services, the Government considered a number of factors, including the value for money of the available options.

While bi-modes may be more expensive to operate than electric trains, they provide greater flexibility for operators when developing their timetables and increases the rolling stock resilience in response to disruption.

Bi-modes allow us to take advantage of state of the art technology to improve journeys for passengers by reducing the up-front capital costs of infrastructure because wires and gantries do not need to be installed along entire routes.