Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in light of his announcement to truncate the East Coast Main Line franchise and change to a Public Private Partnership operation, (a) for how long he expects Virgin Trains East Coast to continue to pay premiums under the remainder of the truncated franchise arrangement and (b) what estimate he has made of the value of those premium payments in each remaining year of that arrangement.

We have set out our plans to end the operational divide between track and train, and from 2020 we intend to establish the East Coast Partnership, one of the first of a new generation of integrated regional rail operations.

We intend to identify the private partner via a competitive process, and will include appropriate contributions paid from the partner to the government.