Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2017 to Question 117958, what assessment his Department has made of the practicability of Northern Rail increasing the frequency of train services on the South Fylde line without Network Rail taking steps to update the existing single-track line.

Given that the branch is single-track from Blackpool South to Kirkham & Wesham, and the typical journey time is about 27 minutes in each direction, we have assessed that an hourly service is the best that can be managed on the existing infrastructure.