Lord Berkeley

The Department and HS2 Ltd are currently undertaking a full reset of the HS2 programme, with revised cost and schedule ranges being developed. Once this work has been completed, these ranges will be published to Parliament.

From Old Oak Common station, the twin bore Euston tunnels will head north-east under Kensal Green Cemetery before broadly following the line of the Network Rail West Coast Main Line into Euston. The alignment curves in a southerly direction under Primrose Hill and the bored tunnels will end beneath the junction of Parkway and Gloucester Avenue.

From this point the twin bore tunnels will transition into a group of structures termed the Euston approaches, rather than interfacing directly with the station at Euston. The Euston approaches include a set of sprayed concrete lined (SCL) tunnels that connect to the twin bored tunnels. The Euston approaches will broadly cover the area between London Zoo car park and Hampstead Road.

The immediate structure that is to interface with Euston station is a retained cutting, which extends for circa 600m from a northerly direction to the entrance of Euston station. This will enable the HS2 lines to fan out into the necessary configuration for the station and its platforms.

Euston is key to realising HS2’s transformational growth benefits. Tunnelling to Euston from Old Oak Common is the most cost-effective approach, as the construction of Old Oak Common is set up for this purpose.

The Government has been collaborating with key partners to develop affordable, integrated plans for the Euston Station Campus, which will include the new HS2 station. We will set out more details in due course.

The six major rail tunnel and road milestones completed ahead of schedule in 2025 are as follows:

The Government’s 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy confirmed that a Euston Delivery Company (EDC) will be established to oversee development of and be the single directing authority for the whole Euston campus. Its primary role will be to lead, integrate, and deliver a modern, safe, and revitalised transport gateway and support commercial development around the Campus.

The Government is working on the design and establishment of the new Delivery Company, with further details to be set out in due course once it has been formally established.

HS2 Ltd is the non-departmental public body responsible for delivering the HS2 programme. This includes responsibility for HS2’s Main Works Civils Construction, which in turn includes the construction of all tunnelling between Old Oak Common and Euston. Great British Railways will not assume this responsibility.

The Government will seek to minimise impacts for passengers during major construction work. No decisions have been taken at this stage of the programme. As with the Transpennine Route Upgrade, we would expect to adopt a collaborative approach between train operators to keep services running for the public during major works.

No decisions have been taken on the long-term delivery strategy for the programme at this stage. However, HS2 Ltd continue to be involved in the development work covered by the High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill.

The Government will provide up to £45 billion of funding to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail turn-up-and-go railway services between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York.

This £45 billion does not constitute a formal cost estimate for the programme but is a funding cap that both demonstrates our commitment and ambition, whilst ensuring NPR remains an affordable and efficient programme. Three phases of delivery will see major construction work in the 2030s, continuing through to the 2040s.

Northern Powerhouse Rail will deliver turn-up-and-go railway services between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York, with regular services to Newcastle, Hull and Chester for North Wales. The first phase of work East of the Pennines will largely be upgrades to existing lines, including electrification. The government is taking forward work on the High Speed Rail (Crewe-Manchester) Bill to seek powers for the section of route into Manchester via Manchester Airport. Options for further sections of new route, including connections to Liverpool, will be assessed with local leaders in the coming months, in advance of any public consultation.

Government has allocated £1.1bn funding for Northern Powerhouse Rail in this Parliament to undertake development and consenting work. The first phase, focusing on electrification and upgrades East of the Pennines, is expected to be delivered during the 2030s.

Neither the Department for Transport nor the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency hold information about how many fuel recovery claims are made each year by operators of petrol stations in England, where a motorist has not paid for fuel.

In its autumn announcement, EWR Co set out proposals for the discontinuous (partial) electrification of the line. Discontinuous electrification can enable net zero services through the use of hybrid battery-electric trains for reduced upfront capital costs compared to full route electrification. Exact costs will depend on the location and extent of electrification, and updated proposals will be provided at the next consultation on EWR later this year.

The data collection stage of the pavement parking research is currently being specified as part of the preparatory work that is already underway and is being designed alongside policy development. We are considering when to launch the fieldwork aspect of the research, in tandem with responding to the consultation on pavement parking.

Cornwall Council are running a tender exercise for an operator for the Public Service Obligation air service between Newquay and London to commence on 1st November 2025. The Department has no role in the assessment of bids received, nor on timescales for making the decision to award the contract.

When a decision has been made by Cornwall Council, it will submit a funding request to the Department which will then assess its value for money before deciding whether to provide funding for the air service.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) reported in its Annual Efficiency and Finance report that Network Rail financially underperformed by £243 million during 2024/25. This represented an increase in costs driven largely by inflationary pressure, higher maintenance and poor train performance. There are arrangements in place to allow Network Rail to manage overspends and underspends across its five-year funding periods. Network Rail is working to improve its financial performance in the current financial year.

The responsibilities of Ministers in the Department for Transport can be found below:

The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for all Department for Transport business, including:

• overarching responsibility for the departmental portfolio and oversight of the ministerial team
• delivering the transport priorities of the government: making transport cheaper, greener, and more reliable
• ensuring the transport network is safe and accessible
• corporate functions such as oversight of departmental finance and public appointments

The Minister for Rail is responsible for:

• rail
• light rail
• London and TfL

The Minister for Roads and Buses is responsible for:

• roads
• buses
• accessibility
• automated vehicles (AVs)
• motoring agencies
• micromobility

The Minister for Local Transport is responsible for:

• local transport
• active travel
• violence against women and girls (VAWG)
• taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs)
• road safety

The Minister for Aviation, Maritime and Decarbonisation is responsible for:

• aviation and airport expansion
• maritime
• decarbonisation and electric vehicles (EVs)
• freight and borders
• security

The Department has been considering all the views expressed in response to the 2020 pavement parking consultation and is currently working through the policy options and the appropriate means of delivering them.

In accordance with Government procurement requirements, my officials are in discussion with suppliers to determine the terms of reference for the current work and expect to issue the formal specification shortly. Timelines will be finalised during the procurement process. Findings will be published as early as possible and no later than 12 weeks after the final outputs from the data collection stage are agreed in accordance with the Government Social Research Publication Protocol. The research will seek to measure the extent of pavement parking and its impacts and provide a baseline so that whichever policy we implement can be evaluated. It will not delay any policy announcement nor the publication of my Department’s formal response to the previous Government’s 2020 consultation.

Delays and reduced passenger services have been caused by ‘soil moisture deficit’, shrinking the clay embankments the rail line from Salisbury to Exeter is built on. This requires speed restrictions, leading to extended journey times and the need for an amended timetable to accommodate. South Western Railway and Network Rail continue to monitor soil moisture levels, track conditions and train performance, and provide regular updates to the Department. We are assured by South Western Railway and Network Rail that usual services will be reinstated as soon as it is safe to do so.

The Department for Transport does not intend to issue a safeguarding direction for the re-opening of the rail line between Lewes and Uckfield.

The Department is committed to improving rail services in the South East and we recognise the social and economic benefits this brings to communities. We will continue to work with stakeholders across the transport industry to identify investments that drive economic growth, deliver value for money for taxpayers, and are affordable.

While some key rail infrastructure schemes have already been announced by the Chancellor, my Department is working to confirm the wider portfolio of rail enhancements. More details about rail enhancements will be provided in due course.

The Thameside Taskforce brings together officials from rail, ports and Local Authorities to focus on rail freight growth on the Thameside corridor. The Anglia Strategic Freight Board is made up of route executives, freight operators, freight customers and ports. Together they are working to support and co-ordinate growth initiatives for rail freight traffic using London Gateway Port and the Port of Tilbury.

Network Rail fully understands the expansion plans at both London Gateway Port and the Port of Tilbury and is assessing how the predicted uplift in traffic due to the terminal expansions can be accommodated.

Steps have already been taken to support rail freight growth out of both ports. Network Rail has worked with freight operators and London Gateway Port to accommodate the increase in freight traffic following the recent Gemini Alliance switch away from the Port of Felixstowe.

Information on train cancellations is published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and can be found on their data portal. This data is not available by calendar month, but is published periodically, by rail periods which are 28 days in duration apart from period 1 (starts on 1 April) and period 13 (ends on 31 March). Each financial year (April to March) consists of 13 railway periods.

Table 1 shows the number of trains that were either partially or fully cancelled, and the proportion of planned services that were partially or fully cancelled by TransPennine Express, for each period from 1st April 2022 to 25th May 2024.

Table 1. The proportion of planned services for TransPennine Express that were partially or fully cancelled, each period from 1 April 2022 to 25 May 2024

Source: DfT analysis of ORR Table 3124

Bringing train operations into public ownership is the first step in the Government’s plans for wider rail reform, including establishing Great British Railways (GBR). Under public ownership, passenger services will be operated in the interests of passengers, not shareholders. Under GBR, we will create a unified and simplified railway that puts passengers first, rebuilding trust.

GBR is set to be the ‘directing mind’ for the rail industry, bringing together the management of the network and the delivery of passenger services into a single public body, to deliver better services for passengers and freight customers, and better value for money for taxpayers. These changes form a critical part of the Government’s wider Plan for Change - delivering growth, jobs, and housing through greater connectivity, putting more money in people’s pockets, and rebuilding Britain.

The department has not conducted a review of all Statutory Harbour Authorities to assess if they have the power to charge for overhanging residential balconies. Given the divergence in port local acts, it is not clear how many ports have this power.

The department has held many meeting with the PLAs. As one of the most important UK ports, officials and Ministers from across government meet with the Port regularly to discuss a range of issues. I can confirm that the issue of balconies has been raised.

The Department does not have any current plans to undertake further trials of roadside noise cameras. The trials demonstrated that this technology currently has the potential to be used for enforcement, but only when accompanied by human review of the recorded evidence, which is likely to lower the cost effectiveness of deploying the technology in many circumstances.

It is ultimately for local authorities and the police to consider what the most appropriate enforcement routes may be for addressing issues with excessive vehicle noise within their area. The use of noise camera technology has already been taken forward by some local authorities.

The HS2 project is funded via capital contribution by the Department for Transport (DfT). Financing costs or charges on public money are not incurred by HS2 Ltd. As a Non-Departmental Public Body, HS2 Ltd also adopts the interpretations of Internation Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and additional disclosure requirements contained in the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) for the relevant financial year, where these are compatible with the requirements of the Companies Act. HS2 Ltd does not have debt as the Company is fully funded by HM Treasury/DfT. The key assumption for cost estimates is that they are currently presented in Q3 2019 prices. Regarding discount rates, the DfT’s Economic Appraisal of HS2 as presented in the “Phase One Full Business Case” (April 2020), which included the expected benefits, Ticket Revenues, construction costs and Operating Costs, were all discounted and presented in Net Present Value (NPV) terms in line with the DfT Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) and HM Treasury Green Book guidance.