Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential financial merits of including in the Hope Valley improvement scheme an increase in express trains from Sheffield to Manchester from 2 to 4 trains an hour.

The Department’s value for money assessment includes assumptions about the financial merits of increasing the number of fast trains on this route. This assessment will need to be refreshed as part of taking forward further work on this scheme. Decisions about future franchise changes will be assessed on their merits as part of this further work.