Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of track access charges for operators outside Great British Railways following the implementation of the Railways Bill on applications for (a) new and (b) renewed access rights.

The Government is fundamentally reforming the track access charging framework by transferring the responsibility for who sets charges from the ORR to GBR. This is so the body who maintains the infrastructure (GBR) will be able to set charges appropriately to recover those costs associated with running services on its network.

Regarding existing rights, the charges already in place will be honoured for the current control period (until April 2029).