Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what financial support his Department is providing to (a) GTR Southern Rail and (b) the rail industry more widely during the covid-19 outbreak.

The total payments made to all train operators under franchise contracts with Department (including those in public ownership) from 1 March to 20 September 2020 was £4.07billion. Of this, £636million relates to the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise (i.e. GTR). Full payment data for this period has been published on www.gov.uk and we will continue to release periodic updates there in future.