Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has plans to exclude successful rail franchise bidders from bidding for other rail franchises in the interests of competition.

The Department does not exclude successful bidders from bidding for other franchises because this is a matter for the relevant competition authority. The award of a franchise may constitute a relevant merger situation under the Enterprise Act 2002, or a concentration under the EU Merger Regulation, and therefore may be investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority or European Commission, depending on the identity of the bidder. The Department does ask bidders to submit an assessment of the competition impacts of their bid.