Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Railways Bill on service reliability of rail routes (a) connecting Birmingham and Walsall and (b) the rest of the West Midlands.

The Railways Bill includes the introduction of Great British Railways (GBR) which will be a new public company responsible for providing the single point of leadership our railways sorely need, squarely accountable to its passengers for the service it delivers. This will help prioritise service reliability throughout the country, including Birmingham and Walsall, as well as the rest of the West Midlands.