Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost has been to the public purse of payments made to rolling stock leasing companies since March 2020.
Under the Emergency Agreements that were introduced early in the Covid-19 pandemic, train operators have been reclassified from the private to the public sector for statistical purposes from April 2020. As such, all rolling stock costs incurred by operators now represent spending by the public sector.
During the 2020/21 financial year, total rolling stock costs for train operators working under contracts with the Department for Transport were approximately £2.1bn. This remains a provisional figure as full audited accounts for the year are not yet available.
Most rolling stock on the network was financed and procured by the private sector rolling stock companies to meet the needs of train operators as part of their bids in respect of the former franchise process. Rolling stock was then leased to private sector train operators, although a wide range of lease terms are in use and contracts can often cover services such as train maintenance and stabling, as well as train rentals.