Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department (a) plans to undertake a tendering process for the new National Rail contracts or (b) allocate those contracts by direct award.
National Rail Contracts are directly-awarded contracts. The first two were awarded and commenced operation in May 2021. Their purpose is to bridge the gap from existing emergency agreements, as they expire, to the new Passenger Service Contracts (PSCs) outlined in the recently published Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail. Passenger Service Contracts will be competed at regular intervals.