£1.2 million bill for franchise staff

The Department for Transport “employed six individuals as contract staff at various times (sometimes covering the same role consecutively) for the Northern (franchise) competition, and five for the TransPennine competition. Costs of those staff were £1.203 million and £1.275m respectively,” Transport Minister Andrew Jones revealed in a Commons Written Reply to the then Shadow Transport Minister Jonathan Reynolds (Labour, Stalybridge and Hyde) on January 11.