Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the (a) average, (b) shortest and (c) longest wait was for determination of an application for a new rail line by a private operator for each year that records are available.

Access to the rail network is a matter for the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in its capacity as independent regulator for the rail industry.

ORR have advised that since 2020, it has determined four applications for wholly new open access services. ORR rejected one and approved three. The time taken to go through the industry processes and reach a decision on these applications was as follows:

- Grand Union Trains (London – Stirling): 126 days

- Grand Union Trains Application 1 (London – Carmarthen): 281 days

- Grand Union Trains Application 2 (London – Carmarthen): 163 days

- Go-op: 783 days

The Go-op process involved significant changes to the application from the applicant over the course of two years. For all of these applications, ORR took decisions within 6 weeks of receiving all relevant information from the parties.