Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to respond to the Peninsula Rail Task Force report.

The Department for Transport welcomes the Peninsula Rail Task Force report and the contribution it makes to the consideration of longer term improvements to the rail network in the South West.

We are investing more than £400 million in the network in the South West, including an extra £10 million for the line from Exeter to Newton Abbot via Dawlish that we announced in November 2016. We will continue to work with Network Rail and the Task Force to explore the potential for longer-term improvements in 2019 and beyond.