PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Railways: North of England (23 June 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether bidders for the (a) TransPennine Express and (b) Northern Rail franchises will have the freedom to specify (i) staffing levels, (ii) ticket office hours and (iii) driver-only specification of new rolling stock in the new franchise bids for each line.

Asked by:
Lisa Nandy (Labour)

The specifications for both the Northern and TransPennine franchises have not yet been decided. A public consultation exercise is being conducted, which will inform these specifications. We expect, however, that for both franchises: (i) staffing levels will be left for bidders to propose; (ii) under the current policy bidders are free to propose changes to ticket office hours, but any change could only take place following further public consultation; and (iii) Specification of Driver Only Operation is being considered for the Northern franchise but we expect to leave this free for bidders to propose on the TransPennine Express franchise.

Answered by:
Stephen Hammond (Conservative)
30 June 2014