Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether any rail operators will be brought into public ownership before their contract expires.

The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill facilitates the Government’s commitment to bring passenger train operations into public ownership and enables the Secretary of State to commence the transition to public sector operation as current contracts reach their end date or contractual break point. This approach ensures that taxpayers will not need to compensate operating companies for ending contracts early.

The Bill does not exclude the possibility of terminating a contract before it expires if the train operating company defaults on its obligations, as set out in its respective National Rail Contract. National Rail Contracts are publicly available and can be accessed through the ‘Public register of rail passenger contracts’.