Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on considering the Speed to the West request of the Peninsula Rail Task Force.

The request from the Peninsula Rail Task Force for additional funding of £600,000 for the “Speed to the West” project represents the first stage in developing a new enhancement scheme to supplement a planned track renewal within the current funding Control Period to 2019 (CP5). The new enhancement scheme is estimated to cost an additional £20-30m to deliver and is currently unfunded.

We have set aside significant funding for the development of new railway schemes in next Control Period 6 (2019 to 2024) and such schemes will need to be considered through the new process for enhancements as part of the Rail Upgrade Plan. We will announce more details about this in due course.