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The Department for Transport (DfT) put in place emergency measures agreements (EMAs) with privately owned franchised train operating companies (TOCs) to mitigate the financial impacts resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and ensure that rail services could continue to operate.

The EMAs were agreed in March 2020 and took effect from 1 April 2020 with their financial provisions back-dated to 1 March 2020. For the majority of TOCs, the EMA applied until 20 September 2020 and operated as a temporary amendment to the underlying franchise agreement, which remains in place.

From 21 September 2020 onwards, the EMAs were replaced by emergency recovery measures agreements (ERMAs) for the majority of TOCs. The ERMAs are a further temporary amendment to the underlying franchise agreements to allow for a phased transition of TOCs onto the new national rail contracts (NRCs).

In 2021, DfT introduced NRCs as TOCs moved away from the EMAs and ERMAs. As part of the NRCs, TOC performance is evaluated against specific metrics across different areas for which they can receive a fee as explained below.

There are some exceptions to these arrangements for certain TOCs. These are described in more depth in the details ofoperational support payments to franchised passenger rail operators under emergency agreements and NRCs,which explains how these payments are calculated and made andthe process for determining performance scores, which outlines how DfT determines performance scores.

Operational support payments

DfTreceives revenue collected and pays most operating costs incurred byTOCsthrough a regular franchise payment, made roughly every 4 weeks. This payment is entirely to fund the ongoing provision of passenger rail services by these operators. None of this money is passed to shareholders.

Operational payments toTOCsunder emergency agreements andNRCs(ODS, 15KB) provides data on these operational support payments for each TOC from 1 March 2020 to 31 March 2024.

Management and performance fees

Separately,TOCscan also earn management and performance fees. These are payable retrospectively on receipt of audited statutory accounts covering the period to which the fees relate. In due course, and subject to conditions, they represent earnings that can be passed on to shareholders.

The process of assessing and scoringTOCs performance, and determining the management and performance fees payable as a result, has been concluded for 5EMAassessment periods from 1 March 2020 to 31 March 2023 and for 4ERMAassessment periods from 20 September 2020 to 31 March 2023.

For the NRCs, 1 assessment period was carried out for the financial year April 2021 to March 2022 and 1 for the financial year April 2022 to March 2023.

Performance scores and fees(ODS, 12KB) provides data onEMA, ERMA and NRCperformance scores, and the management and performance fees payable to TOCs.