Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she plans to take to ensure that track access charges for operators outside Great British Railways will not be increased to offset the absence of access charges for Great British Railways-operated services or for other purposes during the court of their licenses.

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.

GBR will establish and consult on a new fairer simpler charging framework. The ORR will be a statutory consultee and in its role as a robust, independent appeals body hold GBR’s decisions under the framework to account.

To ensure transparency, GBR will need to carry out and publish a 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.