Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2015 to Question 16679, on railways: telecommunications systems, how much was spent from the public purse on the Quicksilver project before it was terminated.

Project Quicksilver was a Network Rail programme that was initiated prior to the reclassification of Network Rail as a public body and was conducted from 2011 to 2015. Project Quicksilver covered two discrete programmes of work but was run by a single team – focused on mobile connectivity and commercial exploitation of the network. These two elements cannot be disaggregated.

The industry was not able to find a solution that satisfied the commercial requirements of all parties to deliver the mobile connectivity improvements. As a result, Network Rail terminated the procurement.

The total cost recorded by Network Rail was £6.86m.