Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support her Department provides to local authorities preparing bids for rail reopening projects.

The Department is open to requests for support and engages directly with local authorities as they develop business cases. It should be noted that rail enhancements projects are rarely proposed as 'bids' but rather considered on the basis of Business Cases and can be considered at any stage of development for entry into the portfolio in line with the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline policy and Market Led Proposals guidance.

The previous Government established a programme of potential railway reinstatement projects under the banner of ‘Restoring Your Railways’. Most of the projects in the programme were unfunded, which is why the programme was closed in July 2024.