Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funds the Government has set aside from (a) the Northern Powerhouse funding and (b) his Department's funding to improve rail links to and from Huddersfield.

Rail links to and from Huddersfield will benefit from the investment the Government is already making in the North of England rail network in support of its vision of a Northern Powerhouse. The Government has committed to the Northern Hub and electrification programmes, and capacity improvements at Huddersfield station. The new East Coast franchise awarded in November 2014 will lead to Huddersfield being introduced as a new destination for Intercity East Coast services with one service to and from London per day from 2019. The Government has also required bidders for the new Northern and TransPennine Express franchises to replace outdated trains, add a third more capacity and invest in stations. In addition the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has been provisionally allocated over £780m of Government Growth Deal funding over 20 years towards the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s multimodal West Yorkshire plus Transport Fund, from which priorities for local transport investment will be determined.

The Government established Transport for the North (TfN) last year to formalise cooperation with Northern City Regions and LEPs on transport issues in the North. The aim is for TfN to speak with one voice to Government on the transport priorities for the whole of the North. The Department is working closely with TfN and Rail North to develop and prioritise the rail options so that the first tranche is ready for consideration as part of the Government’s Rail Investment Strategy for the next rail investment period (CP6, 2019 – 2024). The Government is providing TfN with a development budget of up to £12.5m in 2015/16 to support its wider strategy development work.