Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Kramer on 6 November (HL2589), what savings they have made to date from alliances between passenger train operators and Network Rail.

The sole deep Alliance between a passenger train operator and Network Rail (NR) is the Wessex Alliance between South West Trains and NR. It seeks to deliver benefits such as more effective station management, better planning of track maintenance, aligned objectives and operational efficiencies

The Alliance sees South West Trains and Network Rail share risks and opportunities within agreed parameters. To date, the Alliance has focused on improving the underlying condition of the infrastructure in order to secure operational efficiencies in the future. That approach has not yet generated savings for the Alliance, or therefore Government. Network Rail and South West Trains have, however, gained sufficient confidence in the potential of the Alliance to continue the arrangements into 2017 and we expect to see a financial return arising from these arrangements.