Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to honour their September 2024 commitment to bring Hull into Northern Powerhouse Rail, including the electrification and improvement of the line between Hull, Leeds and Sheffield, following the exclusion of Hull from the Northern Powerhouse Rail plans announced in January.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

As set out in the January 2026 Northern Growth Strategy, the Government is committed to ensuring Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) services reach Hull. The TransPennine Route Upgrade programme is procuring 29 new battery-electric trains for the TransPennine network, enabling electric train services to operate to Hull, and improved connectivity to Leeds, Manchester and beyond. The Department will work with Network Rail to ensure that the infrastructure required to support battery-electric operation is also capable of supporting future NPR bi-mode trains serving Hull. The case for other enhancements – such as connections to Sheffield - will still be considered, irrespective of NPR, in future years.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to secure the restart of the three INEOS acetyls plants at Saltend Chemicals Park, Hull, which were mothballed in September; and whether they plan to convene a meeting in Hull between Ministers, INEOS, the Leaders of Hull and East Riding Councils, local MPs and trade unions for that purpose.

Answered by Lord Leong - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)

The Department is in regular contact with Ineos about the idling of its assets at Saltend, Hull. This includes how we can work together to help support the business to remain competitive in the longer term. It would be inappropriate to say anything further publicly at this stage, given it is a private enterprise and a live commercial matter. We will continue to work closely with industry to support the chemical sector, this includes via the Critical Chemicals Resilience Fund which we expect to be available later this year.

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.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

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.