Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of which areas of research and development in rail operations, planning and technologies would be of most benefit to British railways.

The Department supports and works with the rail industry in identifying the key research, development and innovation that is required to address the current and future challenges for the railway. The Rail Technical Strategy, which has been produced by the rail industry with the support of the Department, sets out five overall priorities:

• Making rail easy to use (including better passenger information, payment methods and accessibility);
• Lowering emissions (including making electrification cheaper and easier, replacing diesel and making the railway more efficient);
• Optimising train operations (including making services more reliable, responsive train planning, and increasing network capacity);
• Making assets more reliable and easier to maintain (so they require less time out of service and cost less over their lifetimes); and
• Making better use of data to underpin all of these.