Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the potential effect of the latest version of the Fourth Railway Package would be on the ability of his Department to directly award passenger service contracts to public sector operators, as defined by section 25(1) of the Railways Act 1993.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Fourth Railway Package has no impact on this provision of domestic primary legislation, which prohibits the award of passenger rail franchises to public sector operators. The EU legislation would not itself prohibit awards to public service operators if in future the domestic prohibition were removed. Similarly, section 30 of the Railways Act 1993, which puts the franchising authority under a duty to secure the continuity of services – including by directly operating the services – will continue to apply.

The current text of the Fourth Railway Package permits direct awards, including to public sector operators, in a range of circumstances including where they can be justified by the characteristics of the network and potential benefits to passengers.