Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the usage figures for Worcestershire Parkway station, published on 8 September, which showed that despite the COVID-19 pandemic a volume of journeys from the station had been reached that was not expected to have been achieved for another 11 years, what assessment they have made of the continued need for the Department for Transport to use Transport Analysis Guidance monitoring systems for assessing the likely value of new railway stations.

The business case for Worcestershire Parkway forecasted a range of demand scenarios to account for uncertainty around the modelling. These included different assumptions on external events, expectations for housing growth and level of abstraction from surrounding stations. We are due to receive a report on the station’s performance from Worcester County Council. We will work through the findings on the differences between the forecasted demand and actual performance and use this to help inform future stations appraisals.

The Transport Analysis Guidance continues to be recommended best practice for transport appraisal. We recognise the analytical challenges associated with forecasting demand for new stations, and valuing the benefits they bring. Following research carried out by Leeds ITS for Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), published on their websites research catalogue as "Rail Openings Appraisal (COF-ECO-ROA)", we are reviewing our guidance in this area and plan to bring forward improvements to it in future.