Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government in their assessment of the need for new high speed rail services what weighting they are giving to improving passenger services between the north east and the south west of England.

As the HS2 scheme has developed, HS2 Ltd have examined a variety of potential train services and infrastructure configurations. This has included looking at the case for running services from the North East to the South West. Passengers travelling from the north east of England to the south west will generally benefit from HS2 by a reduction in travel times for journeys.