Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 29 September (HL3702), what improvement in journey times between Hull and Leeds and between Hull and Manchester they expect from the introduction of battery-electric trains; and on what date they expect those trains to enter passenger service on routes serving Hull.

We expect to see a journey time improvement of 5-6 minutes between Hull and Manchester and up to a minute between Hull and Leeds in comparison to today.

New trains will be in operation on services to and from Hull by December 2034. They may be introduced on this route sooner, but this will need to be considered alongside the unit delivery schedule and driver training plan.