Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the costs of planned investment in (a) Wi-Fi access on trains, (b) provision of customer information and (c) SMART ticketing technology during the new franchise agreement with NXET Trains Ltd for passenger services on the Essex Thameside line; what proportion of each category of funding will fall to (i) the franchisee, (ii) Network Rail and (iii) the public sector.

The standstill period for the Essex Thameside franchise competition has not yet concluded, as such the Department has not signed the new Franchise Agreement and we are not able to confirm this information at this time. An announcement will be made shortly once the Agreement has been signed.