Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the re-baselining of Connection Stages 2 and 3 of the East West Rail project; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Oxford–Bedford section can open to passengers before the end of the decade.

In the Spending Review in June, the Government announced £2.5bn of funding to progress the delivery of East West Rail. The Government has committed to accelerating work to deliver EWR services between Oxford-Bedford and the full Oxford-Cambridge service is subject to an application for a Development Consent Order and is planned to commence from the mid-2030s. An update will be provided on the project shortly.