Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on services to Carnforth Station when High Speed 2 is completed.

No assessment has been made of the effect of HS2 on services to Carnforth Station. However, a significant amount of capacity will be released on existing lines as a result of HS2, which creates a huge opportunity for the reconfiguration and improvement of services. Network Rail has begun thinking about how to make use of the opportunities that High Speed Rail brings to the rail network as a whole, and you can read more about this in their Better Connections report. Network Rail estimate that over 100 towns and cities could benefit from quicker, more frequent journeys and better connections when HS2 phase two is complete.

An illustrative timetable has been developed in order to allow us to assess the likely costs and benefits of HS2, and this factors in some changes to train services as a result of released capacity on existing lines. However, this illustrative timetable was created for modelling purposes and more work needs to take place through open consultation to determine what actual services would look like.