Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to allow the Northern Rail franchise to be publicly run.

Alongside Transport for the North, who co-manage the franchise, our absolute priority is delivering the services that passengers expect. At a time when performance is improving and brand-new trains have been successfully introduced onto the network only this week to replace the unpopular and dated Pacers, major change could result in significant disruption. We see no reason at this stage to consider making changes to the franchise.