Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what criteria his Department has given to Transport for the North for the location of the (a) line and (b) stations on the Northern Powerhouse Rail.

The March 2015 document “The Northern Powerhouse: One Agenda, One Economy, One North” was jointly produced by Government, Northern city regions and local enterprise partnerships. That outlined a shared vision for rail services across the North designed to radically improve journey times and frequencies between major cities to support a single economy. The document also noted that projects in the northern transport strategy will need to offer good value for taxpayer’s money.

This provides the backdrop for development of the northern powerhouse rail network. Work since 2015 has identified that as well as city centre to city centre services, there could be cases where serving locations between the cities could enhance the business case for investment and so be beneficial.

It is for Transport for the North to come forward with proposals that respond to the vision and have a positive business case. We look forward to receiving those proposals next year.