Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people expected to travel by train from Wellingborough to St Pancras each day in (a) peak and (b) off-peak time in (i) March 2018, (ii) June 2018 and (iii) December 2019.

The Department does not hold figures to this level of detail.

However our estimates based on ticket sales data is that on an average c.900 people travelled south from Wellingborough to St Pancras in 2015-16 (across the whole day), and c.300 people travelled north from Wellingborough to main stations on the Midland Mainline in 2015-16 (across the whole day). Of these passengers approximately 45% were travelling to Kettering or Corby, with the balance travelling to Market Harborough or beyond.

Our growth forecast across the whole East Midlands franchise (not specifically from Wellingborough) from that date until 2019 is c 6%.