Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of likely trends in the number of national rail passengers for the following (a) six and (b) 12 months.

In line with our published guidance, the Department has developed a number of scenarios of possible long-term rail demand to reflect uncertainty including how passengers respond post-covid-19 as well as economic forecasts. The Department continues to consider a wide range of evidence for our project appraisals and policy decisions and seeks to use the most up to date inputs to aid in these decisions.