Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2018 to Question 133572, whether any funding allocated by his Department to Network Rail for improvement works on the Southern and Thameslink networks will be paid back to his Department in compensation for disruption during those works.

Compensation is paid by Network Rail to Train Operating Companies for planned disruption on the network (Schedule 4 Payments). No compensation will be paid to Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) as a result of the works referred to in Question 133572 although it will receive some of the money to pay for additional costs it may incur as a result of the disruption to passengers, for example bus replacement services – according to usual industry processes.

For other franchises, some compensation would normally be paid to franchisees to reflect the loss of revenue resulting from the engineering work impact. Again this is part of standard industry practice. For the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) franchise, as the Department for Transport takes revenue risk, this compensation will be paid to the Department.