Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the local transport authorities which form Rail North and are jointly responsible for the (a) TransPennine Express and (b) Northern Rail franchises will have the freedom to specify (i) staffing levels, (ii) ticket office hours and (iii) driver-only specification of new rolling stock in the new franchise bids for each line.

The Department for Transport is currently conducting a joint public consultation with Rail North which will inform the specifications for both the Northern and TransPennine Express franchises; no decisions have yet been taken. While the Secretary of State will make the final decisions on the franchise specifications, Rail North authorities are very involved in this process, including having representatives working within the Department for Transport teams. We expect, however, that for both franchises: (i) staffing levels will be left for bidders to propose; (ii) under the current policy bidders are free to propose changes to ticket office hours, but any change could only take place following further public consultation; and (iii) Specification of Driver Only Operation is being considered for the Northern franchise but we expect to leave this free for bidders to propose on the TransPennine Express franchise.