Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to subsidise rail travel to ensure that it is competitive with air travel.

Passengers deserve punctual and reliable journeys at a fair price, which is why we are investing billions into modernising the network.

Like the airline industry, the rail industry encourages passengers to book early to access low-priced fares, these are known as Advance fares, and are competitive with flight prices to similar destinations.

There are also a number of railcards available that offer discounts against most rail fares. We have saved a generation of passengers at least a third off their fares through the 16-17 and 26-30 railcards and went even further in November 2020 by extending these savings to former servicemen and women through a new Veterans Railcard.