Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost to the public purse was of the negotiations on the TransPennine Express rail franchise agreement.

The costs of the project to procure the TransPennine Express rail franchise, to the end of November 2015, were £6.9M. Forecast costs to project completion, including project mobilisation, are expected to add a further £0.6M to this, making an estimated total of £7.5M by the end of the project. These figures include adviser costs (financial, technical and legal advisers), pay costs for the project team, “non-pay” costs (such as staff training, travel, bidder day seminar, consultation materials, etc) and VAT where applicable. The costs of procuring this franchise however need to be set against the context of a deal whereby the Government will receive £400million in premiums over the life of the franchise, compared to the previous situation where the franchise was subsidised. In addition, the franchise will deliver a transformation in services, with, for example, an overall capacity boost of nearly 70% across the region during the morning peak and doubling the number of Manchester to Newcastle services from December 2017.