Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2018 to Question 122085 on Crossrail, what assessment his Department has made of the technical feasibility of extending Crossrail to Basingstoke; and what criteria his Department uses to assess the technical feasibility of such proposals.

There are no current plans to extend the Crossrail route to Basingstoke and no assessment has been made of the technical feasibility to do so.

The Governance for Railway Investment Projects (GRIP) process describes how Network Rail manages and controls projects that enhance or renew the national rail network. GRIP divides a project into eight stages. Options are considered at GRIP stage 2 (Feasibility) which looks at whether they can be delivered economically and in line with current network proposals and strategies. At this stage the preferred option is defined and outline designs are produced. Technical feasibility of an option that has been selected is usually considered in detail in GRIP stage 4, Single Option Development.