To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on what date the Government expects nationwide coverage for the use of smartcards on the national rail network to be reached. (168693)

The recently let franchises—South Western, West Midlands, East Midlands and Intercity East Coast have a commitment to start the roll-out of smartcard ticketing by 2010, with the New Cross Country Franchise accepting smartcard tickets issued by other operators. The rail strategy White Paper “Delivering a Sustainable Railway”, published this summer and available in the Library of the House, contains more detail of the Government’s intention to work with the rail industry to roll-out ITSO smartcards more widely across the network by the end of 2014.