Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the removal of track access charges by operators within Great British Railways on the (a) pricing, (b) access and (c) general operations of (i) non-nationalised passenger and (ii) freight operators.

The Government is fundamentally reforming the track access charging framework to remove complexities and the complicated ‘money go round’ that would have required GBR to charge itself for using its own infrastructure.

To ensure transparency GBR will need to carry out cost apportionment process which will account for the cost of providing rail infrastructure and the costs of its own passenger services using GBR managed infrastructure had they been subject to charges.