Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to assist Northern in introducing two trains per hour from Northwich station to (a) Manchester Piccadilly and (b) Chester.

Any future options will be considered as part of the Manchester Transformation Programme looking at requirements to improve reliability and increase capacity. More generally, the Rail North Partnership will continue to work with Northern to improve its services, including reinstating or adding services where there is the capacity to do so reliably, based on passenger demand, while recognising that travelling patterns have changed as a result of the pandemic.