Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking under GBR to increase cross border rail connections, such as the Wrexham-Shropshire-Midlands Railway.

In anticipation of the establishment of GBR, the Secretary of State and Welsh Ministers have worked closely together to develop and sign a Memorandum of Understanding outlining how they and their agencies will work together to deliver a more aligned and integrated railway in the Wales and Borders area. The MoU specifically commits to the collaborative development, oversight and management, of cross border services between England and Wales. The MoU further commits to establishing a baseline of services within Wales and the Borders area which will be used as a metric to understand the impact of any changes to service provision.

The Government already understands the potential connectivity benefits that Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway’s (WSMR) proposals could deliver, and for that reason has provided conditional support for WSMR’s application. Access to the rail network is, however, currently a matter for the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) under existing legislation, and the Department for Transport is unable to direct ORR in its decision-making.

Once established GBR will be responsible for taking access decisions under a new access and charging framework, and the commitments made within the MoU will ensure decisions take account of the needs of people in Wales and the Borders.

Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway (WSMR) have applied to operate new Open Access services between Wrexham General and London Euston. This is a resubmission of an application that was previously rejected by ORR due to lack of capacity on the West Coast Main Line. DfT has provided its conditional support for WSMR’s application, subject to ORR and Network Rail being satisfied that services can be accommodated without compromising network performance and without adversely affecting the rights of other operators.