Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the Office of Rail and Road’s decision not to extend the Rail Transparency Order to cover rail maintenance costs.

As stated by the ORR following its review of the Transparency Order, the ORR does not have the powers to vary or revoke the Transparency Order, which are powers reserved to the CMA. This includes maintenance costs, which are beyond the scope of the current remedy and would require a new market investigation by the competition authorities.

The Government recognises the value and importance of transparency in the rolling stock market, however, and its draft Rolling Stock & Infrastructure Strategy is currently looking at maintenance arrangements to see how they could be improved under GBR to deliver more reliable, better value for money trains.