Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 29 May (HL15705), whether any privately funded rail scheme developed under the Market Soundings Finding Report that relies on a guarantee of franchised train operation usage complies with its funding criteria and, if not, whether the only schemes that can comply will be those on which only privately operated open access services run; how many of such schemes on which only open access operators will operate have been submitted; and whether this condition was clearly set out in the invitation to companies to submit schemes.

The market sounding exercise undertaken last year did not seek specific schemes to be submitted. The exercise sought to gauge market appetite for the taking of risk in relation to the design, construction, financing and funding of a new southern rail scheme to Heathrow Airport. The briefing document published as part of the market sounding did make clear that for schemes to be considered true market led proposals, full risk would have to be borne by the private sector. This includes the acceptance of revenue risk without requiring undertakings or guarantees by government including of future train usage.