To ask the Secretary of State for Transport further to his announcement of 19 December 2006, on Thameslink, how many people are employed on the project team; and what the expected annual cost is of the team. (113938)

Network Rail currently employ 170 staff on the Thameslink Project. The current projected annual direct cost of this team is in the order of £8 million. Their primary objective is to progress the development of the project so a more robust decision can be made in the summer of 2007 as to whether to proceed with the implementation of the project following the conclusions of the cross Government Comprehensive Spending Review and the development of the new high level output specification for Network Rail.