Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve connectivity between the east and west of England.

We are changing our approach to transport across the country with the announcement of Network North.

We are investing in schemes such as Northern Powerhouse Rail which will connect some of the North’s biggest towns and cities with faster, more frequent electrified services; East West Rail, a new railway line that will provide east-west connectivity across the Oxford-Cambridge region; improvements to the A50/A500 corridor; and the A66 project between M6 junction 40 at Penrith and A1(M) at Scotch Corner which will widen to dual-carriageway standard the remaining six single-carriageway sections and upgrade major junctions.