Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2015 to Questions 219215 and 219414, what assessment he has made of (a) the comparative proportions of public and private sector investment in the railway, (b) the relationship between rail passenger journey growth and macroeconomic factors and (c) the proportion of revenue paid by private train companies to the public purse ultimately derived from passenger fares, since rail privatisation.

The Department does not have comparable figures to assess the proportions of public and private sector investment in the railway.

There are several macroeconomic factors that impact on journey growth and that are built into the rail models, and as provided in the transport appraisal guidance (available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/webtag-tag-unit-m4-forecasting-and-uncertainty-november-2014). These factors include, amongst other things, growth in GDP, population and employment which have a generally positive relationship with journeys growth, and other factors such as fuel prices, car availability, air costs, some of which have positive relationships and some negative.

The Department does not hold data on the proportion of revenue paid by private train companies to the public purse ultimately derived from passenger fares.