Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Whole Industry Strategic Plan call for evidence, what assessment his Department has made of the wider economic benefits of rail expansion and investment.
We have issued a public call for evidence on the Whole Industry Strategic Plan for rail to give anyone the opportunity to inform our development of a thirty-year strategy for the railway, including on how the rail sector can contribute to wider economic growth. My Department collects, assesses and publishes statistics and research on the wider benefits of the rail system to the country and to the economy, many of which are set out in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail and in the evidence papers for the Williams Rail Review. In developing the Strategic Plan, we will draw on the widest possible evidence base.