Section 30: Public sector provision of services., Railways Act 1993

The relevant franchising authority shall provide, or secure the provision of, services for the carriage of passengers by railway where—

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

a franchise agreement in respect of the services is terminated or otherwise comes to an end ... ....

The relevant franchising authority may secure the provision of services for the purpose of fulfilling the duty under subsection (1) only by making a direct award of a public service contract to a public sector company in accordance with regulation 17 (general direct award provision for rail) of the 2023 Regulations.

Regulation 22 (pre-award publication) of the 2023 Regulations does not apply in relation to an award made as mentioned in subsection (1A).

The duty in subsection (1) does not apply in respect of services at any time when they are being provided under section 30A (temporary continuation of existing franchises).

Subsection (1) above does not—

require the relevant franchising authority to provide or secure the provision of services if and to the extent that, in its opinion, adequate alternative railway passenger services are available;

require the Secretary of State or the Scottish Ministers to provide or secure the provision of a Welsh service where it appears to the Secretary of State or the Scottish Ministers (as the case may be) that the Secretary of State or the Scottish Ministers will not be receiving funds from the Welsh Ministers that are reasonably equivalent to those provided by the Welsh Ministers (whether directly to the previous franchisee or otherwise) in respect of the service provided by the previous franchisee;

require the Secretary of State to provide or secure the provision of a service within the area of a Passenger Transport Executive where it appears to him that he will not be receiving funds from the Executive that are reasonably equivalent to those provided by that Executive (whether directly to the previous franchisee or otherwise) in respect of the service provided by the previous franchisee;

require the Secretary of State to provide or secure the provision of a service that makes scheduled calls in Greater London where it appears to him that he will not be receiving funds from Transport for London that are reasonably equivalent to those that were provided by Transport for London (whether directly to the previous franchisee or otherwise) in respect of the service provided by the previous franchisee;

preclude it from making a proposal to which section 24 of the Railways Act 2005 (proposals to discontinue franchised or secured services) applies in relation to any of the services, in which case its duty under this section to secure the provision of the services to which the proposal relates will (subject to subsections (7) and (8) of that section) terminate on the date for the discontinuance of services specified in the proposal; or

preclude it from ceasing to provide or secure the provision of any of the services in any case falling within any of paragraphs (a) to (d) of subsection (3) of that section.

For the purposes of this section the Secretary of State, the Scottish Ministers and the Welsh Ministers shall each have power—

to provide or operate network services, station services or light maintenance services; or

to store goods or consign them from a place to which they have been carried by rail;

and the Scottish Ministers shall have power to provide Scotland-only services and cross-border services, and the Welsh Ministers shall have power to provide Wales-only services and Welsh components of Welsh services..

In this section "relevant franchising authority" means the person who was the appropriate franchising authority in relation to the franchise agreement that has been terminated or otherwise come to an end.

In this section—

"previous franchisee", in relation to a railway passenger service, means the franchisee in relation to the franchise agreement under which the service was previously provided; ...
...

and references in this section to a Passenger Transport Executive and to a service within the area of a Passenger Transport Executive are to be construed as they are to be construed for the purposes of section 13 of that Act.

Section 30: Public sector provision of services.

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