Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the target for all franchises to stop discharging effluent onto tracks will be met by the end of the calendar year; and whether any franchises will be allowed exemptions.

Network Rail are currently in the process of implementing a change to their operational requirements that will prohibit any rolling stock from discharging effluent to the network from 31 December 2019. To date no operator has been granted any exemption from these requirements. Any requests for exemption will be dealt with on a case by case basis.