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Rail Fares and Franchises

I believe that there is a relationship that needs to be considered. I draw the Minister's attention to the recent publication by ATOC that makes that very point. I will happily send him a copy if he has not seen it. The Select Committee rightly referred to the issue of special purpose vehicles. I will not repeat what was said, but I agree with the Chairman of the Committee on the matter. There is a question about what the penalty should be if a company wants to walk away from a franchise, and whether that should then be reflected in other franchises that it holds. That is a difficult question. I took the view that if National Express was going to walk away from the East Coast franchise, there was a case for taking away its other two franchises. There was certainly a case for removing the uncertainty from the passengers as to what would happen to those two particular franchises. There is a case for penalising National Express for the current situation, even though it is not all its fault. However, there is another side to the matter. As the hon. Member for Wimbledon said, c2c has achieved some of the best performance on the rail network, and it is difficult to argue that people taking the line to Southend should have a franchise operator taken away when the company is successfully delivering for them, even though the company overall is not delivering to the Government. I do not have an answer to that. I just throw up the question because it is a difficult one to resolve.