§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Transport whether he will make available the British Railways Board forecasts of passenger railway support requirements for 1979.
§ Mr. William RodgersI have accepted the British Railways Board's claim for passenger support for 1979 for £444.5 million. The detailed information requested is as follows:
551WNotes to the Tables
The tables show the British Railways Board's forecast of their requirement for passenger support in 1979.
The Board claim compensation from the Secretary of State for the financial burden of operating the passenger railway system as a public service under section 3 of the Railways Act 1974 and EEC Council regulation 1191/69.
The Board's annual claim for compensation sets out the forecast costs of the passenger railway system and the forecast revenue for the coming year. The amount claimed is the difference between these costs and earnings—with minor adjustments.
Table 1 shows the breakdown of direct expenses and revenue for the four passenger business sectors. Direct expenses comprise train service expenses—train crews, fuel, carriage cleaning etc—station expenses and miscellaneous expenses—eg publicity.
Table 2 shows the indirect costs—that is those not attributed to particular services or groups of services—for both passenger and freight businesses. The costs charged to freight are then deducted to give those for the passenger business.
Table 3 shows how the passenger support requirement is derived by deducting from the indirect costs other income and the net contribution from the business sectors and by adding replacement allowance.
Central Government support for 1979 has been agreed by the Secretary of State in the sum of £444.5 million which is paid during the year in weekly instalments.