Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the reasons for higher rail operating costs in the UK than in Europe.

Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport: The Government has recently announced a comprehensive Rail Review to be independently chaired by Keith Williams. The Review will recommend how the UK Rail sector can deliver better services for passengers, whilst improving its financial sustainability. A definitive, comparable measure demonstrating higher rail operating costs between the UK and Europe is not available. But we do need to ensure that the investment going into the UK’s railways is efficiently used, and costs controlled.

Alongside this, the Government is continuing to use the current periodic review process, which sets Network Rail’s funding and outputs for 2019-24, to robustly challenge Network Rail’s efficiency, including by supporting the strong efficiency challenge on infrastructure costs by the independent Office of Rail and Road.

Hansard

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