Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the Midlands Rail Network scheme for the region's economy.
Network Rail prepared a Strategic Outline Business Case for the Midlands Rail Hub scheme in 2019. It showed that this investment would deliver significant benefits to Birmingham and the Midlands.
Network Rail, working with Midlands Connect is progressing an Outline Business Case and I expect to the receive the Outline Business Case in Autumn 2022.