Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the proposed discontinuous electrification of East West Rail on (a) capital costs and (b) operating costs of the railway.

The cost of discontinuous electrification is already included in the publicised capital cost range of the project and the option of full electrification is still under consideration. However, electrification (discontinuous or full) is expected to significantly reduce operating costs for the line over its whole life.