Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the estimated cost of the proposed extension of Crossrail to Reading.

The Crossrail Project (which is managed by Crossrail Limited) will save approximately £10m as a result of the extension to Reading as some items of scope which were planned to be delivered at Slough and Maidenhead are no longer required.

The service requires one additional train to be added to the Crossrail fleet. This will form part of the recently announced rolling stock and depot contract with Bombardier where there was an option to procure additional trains. The exact costs of the train are commercially confidential but I can confirm that the cost is being met from Crossrail's existing funding.

Electrification costs are already included in the Great Western electrification programme.