§ 36. Mr. Spriggsasked the Minister of Transport if he will list in the Official Report those EEC railway passenger and freight systems which are viable and those which are not, at the latest date for which this information is available; if he will list the respective subsidies made by each Government in the latter instance; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. FowlerNone of the national railway companies of the EEC countries is viable in the sense that it meets its costs in full from self-generated revenue and is able to operate without financial assistance from Government.
Annex 1(b) of the EEC Commission's second biennial report on the economic and financial situation of the railway undertakings which was deposited in the House in the usual way, sets out the latest available information about the amount of State assistance to each of the railway undertakings. I shall arrange for a table converting the figures given for State intervention in annex 1(b) into 289W £ sterling to be published in the Official Report.
When looking at the amounts of subsidy paid to the various companies it must be recognised that differences in company size, structure, accounting conventions and relationships with Government make exact comparisons difficult.
Following is the table:
Railway Company State intervention Railway Company in £ million SNCB—Belgium 610 DSB—Denmark 88 DB—Germany 1,796 SNCF—France 1,220 CIE—Ireland 33 FS—Italy 793 CFL—Luxembourg 59 NS—Netherlands 212 BRB—United Kingdom 373 The figures are derived from the EEC Commission's second biennial report on the economic and financial situation of the railway undertakings and have been converted from national currencies into £ sterling at average 1977 exchange rates. They exclude certain payments to railway undertakings, such as grants towards historic pension deficiencies.