Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve rail connections from northern England to Scotland; and if he will make a statement.

A key element of the Government's strategy for the railways is improving connectivity to support economic growth - facilitating business, commuting and leisure journeys.

Projects and programmes that are set to improve connectivity between the north of England and Scotland by increasing capacity, reducing journey times, and/or improving performance or train frequencies include:

(a)Electrification in the North West of England – ten brand new four-coach electric trains commenced operation on the route between Manchester Airport and Edinburgh/Glasgow in May this year;

(b)The refranchising programme – including a recent Direct Award to Virgin West Coast Trains and award of the next InterCity East Coast franchise later this year and the next TransPennine Express franchise in 2015;

(c)HS2 – as announced in November last year, the Department is undertaking a study in collaboration with the Scottish Government to identify the broad options available to make further capacity and journey time improvements between northern England and Scotland.