Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 29 July 2019 to Question 279431 on Northern, what allowable Changes have been applied to the Arriva Rail North franchise subsidy in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18 and (c) 2018-19.

For the years 2016/17 through to 2018/19, allowable changes that have been agreed and applied to their subsidy cover the remapping of services from TPE to Northern and a change in the fares policy changing the annual regulated fares increase assumed at bid from RPI+1% to RPI only

Discussions continue with Northern on the impact of other allowable changes that will be applied to the franchise subsidy. These cover changes to Network Rail’s costs and changes to scope and timing of planned infrastructure upgrades.

All these changes are in line with the terms of the Franchise Agreement.