Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve the provision of rail services in (a) Tyne and Wear and (b) the North East of England.

Rail journeys across the north east will undergo the biggest transformation in decades, with an unprecedented package of improvements. By 2020 all the trains will be brand new or completely refurbished, and all the Pacer trains will be gone. Similarly, across the whole of the North there will be more than 500 brand-new train carriages, with room for 40,000 more passengers and 2,000 extra services a week.

The 2^nd Round of New Station Fund is providing £3.3 million towards a new station on the Durham Coast Line at Horden. The Government supports the Metro system with £317million for its reinvigoration and renewal programme and £230 million towards its running costs. The Transport Secretary last week unveiled the latest stage in the government’s record investment in Britain’s railways setting out the next round of rail funding, announcing that around £48 billion will be spent on the network over a 5 year period, from 2019 to 2024, including more maintenance and a huge uplift in renewals to increase reliability and punctuality for passengers.