Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much and what proportion of Government funding has been allocated to the construction of the Manchester Tunnel between Manchester Piccadilly station and the proposed HS2 Manchester Airport; and whether he plans to amend the specification to allow Northern Powerhouse Rail trains to operate.

The government is seeking to adapt the High Speed Rail (Crewe-Manchester) Bill to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) only, removing scope south of the Parish of Millington and Rostherne, which was included only for HS2. A motion to formalise the point of truncation will be brought to the House and a supplementary environmental statement will be produced.

As set out in the Network North Command paper, up to £12 billion in 2023 prices has been retained to deliver NPR scope between Manchester and the Parish of Millington and Rostherne. The funding has not been disaggregated further.