Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will list the HS2 trains which are going to service (a) Crewe, (b) Macclesfield, (c) Stafford, (d) Liverpool, (e) Edinburgh and (f) Glasgow.

In the indicative train service assumptions that inform the HS2 and NPR business cases, the following HS2 services will call at the stations below, once Phases 1, 2a and the Western Leg to Manchester are operational. No final decisions have been made on the train service that will run when HS2 becomes operational. These decisions will be taken nearer the time, drawing on advice from the West Coast Partnership and Network Rail, and will be subject to public consultation.

Indicative for Crewe

2 trains per hour from London to Liverpool

1 train per hour from London to Lancaster

2 trains per hour from Manchester to Birmingham (as part of NPR)

Indicative for Macclesfield

1 train per hour terminating from London.

Indicative for Liverpool

2 trains per hour terminating from London.

Indicative for Glasgow

1 train per hour terminating from London

Edinburgh

Based on the current scope in the High Speed Rail (Crewe-Manchester) Bill, following the removal of the Golborne Link, HS2 trains are no longer proposed to serve Edinburgh as part of the Phase 2b Western Leg indicative train service. Following the Union Connectivity Review, the Government is committed to looking again at alternatives which deliver similar benefits as the Golborne Link to Scotland, so long as these deliver for the taxpayer within the £96 billion envelope allocated for the Integrated Rail Plan.

In the meantime, we are getting on with delivering the benefits of HS2 to Manchester by taking the rest of the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill forwards.