§ Mr. AlisonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what conclusions he has reached following his Department's consultative exercise on the provision of rolling stock following the privatisation of British Rail.
§ Mr. FreemanI intend to ask British Rail to establish rolling stock companies and to transfer its existing passenger rolling stock to these by 1 April 1994. Our provisional view is that there should be three rolling stock companies. Each should have a mixed portfolio of different types and ages of stock which they would lease to franchisees and BR's operating divisions pending franchising. Wherever reasonably practicable franchisees should have more than one potential source of supply for rolling stock in any particular market segment. More 487W detailed work is in hand to determine how the fleet should be divided between the companies; what role the companies should take in the maintenance of their stock; and, whether, for example, individual BR maintenance depots should be associated with each rolling stock.
The companies will initially be publicly owned and will invest as necessary to renew their fleets. Our intention is to transfer the companies to the private sector as soon as practicable.
During the course of the consultative exercise a number of ideas have been put forward for the early involvement of private sector expertise and capital. I expect to reach conclusions shortly on the role which the private sector might take in working with the public sector in developing an operating lease market. I will then be inviting those interested to bring forward specific proposals.