Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to improve transport links between Pendle constituency and (a) Manchester and (b) London since 2010.

Passengers from stations on the Colne branch in the Pendle constituency, travelling to Manchester will, May 2015, benefit from additional connections to new services to Manchester via the Todmorden Curve, whose reinstatement was funded by Lancashire County Council but with support from the Regional Growth Fund. They will also, from 2016, benefit from wider improvements to Northern rail services following refranchising, including the replacement of the Pacer fleet.

Passengers connecting to London via Preston have benefited from additional capacity on the Virgin West Coast services as a result of the 106 extra carriages introduced in 2012.

On the highways side, the Lancashire Growth Deal also includes the Burnley‑Pendle Growth Corridor, a project targeting junction improvements and other transport improvements to release additional site capacity, and enable quicker movement of goods, services and people through this key Economic Corridor. This is focussed on the M65 which has also had Highways Agency support for the M65 Junction 5 improvements. Works are scheduled to take place between January 2015 and March 2015. The M65 links East Lancashire to the M6 for journeys south to London.

The Highways Agency have also completed and started construction on a number major improvements on the M6, M60, M62 and the M1 that will improve journeys to Manchester and London.