Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) affordability and (b) quality of rail travel in (i) Coventry and (ii) the West Midlands.

The Government has frozen regulated rail fares in line with inflation for the seventh year in a row.

The future introduction of HS2 will help improve the quality of rail travel across Coventry and the West Midlands, but there are initiatives that are making a real difference now:

• In May 2019, West Midlands Trains (WMT) introduced through services and longer trains between Leamington and Nuneaton via Coventry.

• WMT is investing £700million to introduce 180 brand new carriages and add 20,000 more peak hour seats into Birmingham in the next couple of years.

• Subject to the approval of Avanti’s proposal by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), Walsall will receive its first direct Intercity West Coast services to London in 2021, while Coventry and the West Midlands are due to benefit from additional services on weekends from 2021, and earlier weekday morning services from December 2022.

• We are investing to provide additional carriages to increase capacity on CrossCountry (XC) services at Coventry and across the West Midlands from 2021.