Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much is spent at present in subsidies for rail freight, including for the development of express parcel delivery traffic.

Domestic and international rail freight services are private operations run on a commercial basis. The Government provides some limited support in specific areas.

The Government incentivises modal shift from road to rail through the £20 million per year Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme.

The Government provided £2.155 million to rail freight projects through the First of a kind competition for cutting edge ideas to help transform the railway. These projects include rail freight express parcel delivery.

DfT also contributes to some of the Operations, Maintenance and Renewals Charges (OMRC) charges for international freight trains using the Channel Tunnel under the terms of the commercial agreements which established the Channel Tunnel. This amount is variable but is approximately £13m per year.