Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Section 1.7.4 Rail in The future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union White Paper, published on 12 July 2018, how his Department defines the unique characteristics of the UK rail network.

The uniqueness of the UK rail industry is characterised by its long history of market liberalisation and competition, with more private operators than any other EU country and with parts of our network running to almost full capacity. The UK uses a different gauge and also differs from many of our European neighbours in that our network is largely domestic with only two cross-border services.