Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of industrial action by Network Rail employees on the rate of track access charges paid to Network Rail by train operating companies.

When industrial action by Network Rail employees results in fewer passenger services operating, this has an impact on the amount of variable track access charges paid to Network Rail by train operating companies. The rate (i.e. the cost per vehicle/train mile) of the variable track access charge, and amount of fixed track access charges, remain unchanged during industrial action.

The impact of industrial action on variable track access charges depends on factors such as the extent of the industrial action and the number of services that operate, but it is estimated that the average daily impact on infrastructure charges (inclusive of variable track access charges) is around £1.5 million per day of industrial action.