Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department will decide whether to order additional new rolling stock from Hitachi to service the far South West; and if he will include a more powerful hybrid engine to account for the undulating geography of the South West in such an order.

First Great Western’s procurement exercise for new trains to serve the South West is making good progress; and we expect them to submit final proposals to the Department for consideration over the summer. The new train fleet will have appropriate performance characteristics to operate on the far South West routes.