Railways: Reform
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate she has made of the potential impact of (a) her rail reform policies and (b) the establishment of Great British Railways on costs to the public purse.
Answered by Keir Mather
The Impact Assessment presents an estimate of the set-up costs for Great British Railways and the Passenger Watchdog of approximately £200-400 million, with total transitional costs representing around 1-2% of the annual operational costs for DfT contracted operators and Network Rail combined. This investment will set GBR up on the right footing to achieve benefits for users and realise financial efficiencies once fully established.
This builds on our continuing programme to bring all currently franchised services into public ownership. This will save the taxpayer up to £150 million a year in fees that would otherwise have been paid to private operators.
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