Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2024 to Question 15192 on Govia Thameslink Railway: Standards, whether his Department made an estimate of the potential increased cost to the public purse of performance fees due under the Train Operating Company’s management contract when deciding to lower performance standards for Thameslink.

Targets are updated annually and are calibrated to incentivise operators to deliver the best outcomes for customers within the budget available. They should be challenging but achievable. This process was followed when setting Govia Thameslink Railway’s (GTR) Service Quality Regime (SQR) targets for 2023/24.

The SQR fee is capped at a maximum level, however, the actual fee is dependent on performance, which is not known in advance.