Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will carry out an economic assessment of the value of the East Coast Main Line to the UK economy; and if he will make a statement.

In 2017 Network Rail published their document “East Coast Main Line Route Study – Railway Investment Choices”. In respect of an economic assessment of the East Coast Main Line as a fast, high yield route connecting London with the North and Scotland, it was stated that a third of the UK population lives within 20 minutes of an ECML station; and together they produce 41% of the UK’s GDP (Source: Office of National Statistics Gross Value Added).

A link to the Network Rail publication can be found here

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/East-Coast-Main-Line-Route-Study.pdf