Railways: Finance

Mark Lazarowicz
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department plans to spend on subsidy to train operators in 2009-10.

Chris Mole
The Department for Transport maintains financial forecasts of anticipated subsidy payable to train operating companies. However, this information is commercially confidential and market sensitive.

Historic subsidy payments are published in National Rail Trends which is available on the Office of Rail Regulation's website at:

www.rail-reg.gov.uk

Copies are also available in the Library of the House.

Mark Lazarowicz
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of the privatisation of the rail network.

Chris Mole
The historic costs associated with the privatisation of the railway have been published in the annual reports of the various bodies involved in the process. The following table sets out the reported costs of those organisations between 1991-92 and 1996-97:

------------------------------------------------
|                                    |£ million|
------------------------------------------------
|Department of Transport             |93.2     |
------------------------------------------------
|Office of Rail Passenger Franchising|93.5     |
------------------------------------------------
|Office of Rail Regulation           |27.3     |
------------------------------------------------
|British Rail                        |332.2    |
------------------------------------------------
|Railtrack                           |78.0     |
------------------------------------------------
|Total                               |624.2    |
------------------------------------------------

Norman Baker
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many rail franchises other than the East Coast Main Line are at red on his Department’s financial risk scale.

Chris Mole
The Department for Transport reviews the operational and financial performance of train operating companies on a regular basis, as part of its routine monitoring of the contractual arrangements between the Department and its franchise holders. That internal analysis is commercially confidential.