Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much and what proportion of funding for Northern Powerhouse Rail is expected to be spent in Lancashire.

Northern Powerhouse Rail will provide up to £45 billion of funding to deliver turn up and go railway services between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York. The economic rationale is enabling these areas to function as single high productivity growth corridor.

The Government has not excluded funding potential future rail improvement schemes more widely for areas such as Lancashire. This is not within the Northern Powerhouse Rail programme funding and would be considered through other sources in the normal way, such as future rail network enhancement programme funding.