Government support to the rail industry
1985-86 to 2011-12 Great Britain (£ million)
Revenue support grants to domestic passenger services
financial year name
Central government grants
PTE grants
Direct rail support
Other elements of government support
Total government support excluding PTE grants
Total government support including PTE grants
Freight grants
1985-86
849
78
0
61
910
988
7
1986-87
755
70
0
22
777
847
6
1987-88
796
68
0
-251
545
613
2
1988-89
551
70
0
-175
376
446
2
1989-90
479
84
0
232
711
795
1
1990-91
637
115
0
440
1,077
1,192
4
1991-92
902
120
0
562
1,464
1,584
1
1992-93
1,194
107
0
870
2,064
2,171
2
1993-94
926
166
0
535
1,461
1,627
4
1994-95
1,815
346
0
-464
1,351
1,697
3
1995-96
1,712
362
0
-1,643
69
431
4
1996-97
1,809
291
0
-1,044
765
1,056
15
1997-98
1,429
375
0
25
1,454
1,829
29
1998-99
1,196
337
0
53
1,249
1,586
29
1999-00
1,031
312
0
75
1,106
1,418
23
2000-01
847
283
0
84
931
1,214
36
2001-02
731
306
684
105
1,520
1,826
57
2002-03
935
304
1,166
183
2,284
2,588
49
2003-04
1,359
414
1,670
179
3,208
3,622
32
2004-05
878
389
2,370
154
3,402
3,791
26
2005-06
879
332
3,366
24
4,270
4,602
23
2006-07
1,456
313
4,463
76
5,995
6,308
30
2007-08
1,123
310
3,673
187
4,983
5,293
18
2008-09
273
317
4,266
356
4,896
5,213
21
2009-10
467
316
3,798
38
4,303
4,619
20
2010-11
-51
207
3,680
125
3,753
3,960
20
2011-12
-133
214
3,744
76
3,687
3,901
17
Source:
Department for Transport, Transport Scotland and Welsh Assembly.
 
Publication schedule:
Published: 23 August 2012
Next publication date: 22 August 2013

For a list of all official statistics publication dates, please visit:
http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1862
 
This is an official statistic. For more details please contact the Head of Profession Jay Lindop at jay.lindop@orr.gsi.gov.uk or on 020 7282 3978.
 
 
 
Background:

This table shows government subsidy towards the rail industry.
Government support comprises:
• Central Government grants - this involves payment to Train Operating Companies and performance receipts
• Grants made to Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs)
• Direct rail support includes grants to Network Rail and London and Continental Railways
• Freight grants
• Other miscellaneous elements of Government support.
Key results:
 
1). Government subsidy towards the railway industry in 2011-12 was £3,901 million (£3.9 billion), this is £59 million lower than the previous year.

2). Government support reached its peak in 2006-07 with £6,308 million; government support has declined every year since.
3). Central government grants were -£133 million in 2011-12, this reflects money which was received by government from the various train operating companies as part of their franchise agreement.
4). PTE grants were £214 million in 2011-12, up by £7 million compared to the previous year.

5). Direct rail support was £3,744 million in 2011-12, up by £64.4 million compared to the previous year.

6). Other elements of government support were £76 million in 2011-12, down by £49 million from the previous year.
Methodology:
 
Prior to 1994-95, Government support to the rail industry comprised grants to British Rail and the Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs), and borrowing by British Rail from the National Loans Fund.

The privatisation of the rail industry in April 1994 led to changes in the basis of government funding. Grant levels were set to allow the newly formed rail companies to earn commercial returns. Support for passenger services was channelled through the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising (OPRAF) and the PTEs, which were funded by the Revenue Support Grant and an additional Metropolitan Grant. Any cash surpluses that were earned were returned to the Exchequer and used to reduce the net level of support to the industry while the rail companies were still in the public sector. In 2001 OPRAF support was replaced with Strategic Rail Authority support, which in 2005 was replaced with grants made by the Department for Transport (DfT), the Welsh Assembly Government and Transport Scotland. Since its creation in 2001, Government grants have also been paid to Network Rail.
Government support to the rail industry now chiefly consists of DfT support grants paid to Network Rail and Train Operating Companies, and PTE Special Grants. Rail freight grants are also paid by Government to encourage the movement of freight by rail.

The year by year profile of Government support to the rail industry was affected by the decision in the Access Charges Review 2003 to reprofile Network Rail's income. This led to Government support being lower than it otherwise would have been in 2004-05 and 2005-06, with the shortfall being made up in later years.

See http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/343.pdf for further details.
Notes, revisions and proposed changes:
 
1 Since 1994-95 Central Government grants have involved franchise payments to Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and performance receipts. Franchise payments are payments to TOCs contracted in their franchise agreements. Performance receipts are payments that vary depending on the financial performance of the TOC, and can result in payments from a TOC to the Government as well as from Government to the TOC. Negative values show where the Government was in receipt of payments. Prior to 1994-95 Central Government grants consisted of Public Service Obligation (PSO) Grant and Level 1 Crossing Grant to British Rail. On 1 April 1994, PSO grants were replaced by OPRAF support and grants to British Rail and, from the point of franchise, to private sector TOCs. In 2001, OPRAF support was replaced by Strategic Rail Authority support, and since 2005 these Central Government grants have been made by the Department for Transport, the Welsh Assembly Government and Transport Scotland under their respective contracts with Train Operating Companies. For 2010-11 these figures also include contract payments by the Department for Transport to Merseytravel PTE and Transport for London which are made under funding arrangements for devolved operations.
2 PTE grants are paid to the five Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs), Transport for Greater Manchester and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport in Britain. These figures include grants made to PTEs specifically for rail, so will not include any spending on rail made by PTEs from general grants. All grants to PTEs are currently made by the Department for Transport and Transport Scotland. Between 1995-96 and 2005-06 PTE rail funding also included loan repayments under Deeds of Assumption (DoA). These were payments to the PTEs relating to their past capital investment in the railway. They were made by British Rail and DoA Ltd until 2001, when the Strategic Rail Authority took over responsibility for the payments until they were paid off
3 Direct rail support comprises direct payments to Network Rail. These originated in 2001 following the creation of Network Rail to replace Railtrack. Prior to this, Railtrack was funded by network access charges paid by train operators. These figures also include payments to London and Continental Railways during the construction of the High Speed 1 route. In 2010-11 the direct rail support figure is net of a £100m rebate that was received from Network Rail during the year.
4 Miscellaneous elements include DfT support to the British Transport Police, Rail Pensions, Passenger Focus, the Rail Heritage Committee and a grant to British Rail to finance its residual activities. The proceeds from the sales of Rolling stock operating companies (ROSCOs) and British Rail non-passenger business in 1995-96 and 1996-97 are included in this category.
Quality:

As part of our commitment to continuous quality improvement, we will be producing a full quality report for all NRT statistics, in line with the Government Statistical Service (GSS) standards for quality reporting. The quality measures below provide a summary of the key dimensions of statistical quality.
Relevance:

Users are consulted for their feedback by a number of methods, including the NRT portal survey and regular meetings of the Rail Statistics Management Group. If you have any feedback on these data or any of our statistics, please contact rstats@orr.gsi.gov.uk

We would like to know what you use this data for, we would greatly appreciate if you could complete this quick on-line survey (it should take a maximum of two minutes) http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/useofNRT.
Accuracy:
Government subsidy figures are audited by the three organisations which provide the data.
Timeliness/Punctuality:
The latest data in this release refers to 2011-12, 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012.

Comparability & coherence:
ORR also publishes investment in the railway industry by private companies. This does not cover any government subsidy, but rather investment made by private companies into the railway industry (see link below).
Other links:
The following Government subsidy tables can be previewed here: http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/browsereports
- Subsidy per passenger kilometre by TOC

Private investment in the railway: http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/5cc4eb14-fe68-4b72-aebf-81625df90d86