PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Railways: Fares (23 June 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June 2015 to Question 2634, and with reference to the Northern franchise invitation to tender of 27 February 2015, whether his plans to enable the simplification of regulated fares structures within the consolidated fares baskets that invitation to tender were dependent on bidders' use of the flex mechanism; and what alternative mechanisms are available to bidders for that franchise for the purpose of simplifying overall regulated fare structures.

Asked by:
Lilian Greenwood (Labour)

Our plans for simplifying regulated fares within the fares baskets for the Northern Invitation To Tender do not depend solely on bidders' use of the flex mechanism. Whilst the flex mechanism provides one means for train operators to rebalance fares over time to remove the sharp jumps and anomalies that currently occur, fares simplification can nonetheless take place within the Northern franchise without the use of the flex. We expect to work with the future Northern franchisee to explore which approaches would be most appropriate to phase out these anomalies over the long-term.

Answered by:
Andrew Jones (Conservative)
29 June 2015