Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the cost of rail fares in order to increase travel on railways, as the German government has recently announced it will do.

We have launched a number of measures to help passengers save on rail fares. Most recently, we launched the Great British Rail Sale, the first ever nationwide rail sale. Over 1.3 million tickets were sold, offering around £7 million worth of savings for passengers. A number of railcards are also available to passengers that offer discounts on most rail fares.

Taxpayers also provided significant financial support to keep trains running throughout the pandemic, with Government having committed almost £16 billion since March 2020 to ensure vital services continued to run and key workers were able to keep using them. It is important now to put rail finances back on a sustainable footing in a way that is fair to passengers and taxpayers as we recover from the pandemic.

Any new rail fare discounts need to be carefully balanced for their potential impacts on passengers, taxpayers and the railway.