Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the finding of the Campaign for Better Transport report, The Case for Expanding the Rail Network, published in January 2019, that a national programme of reopening 33 priority rail schemes would cost £4.8 billion.

We have made no formal assessment of the Campaign for Better Transport report. However, the Department has pledged to begin reopening closed railway lines and stations and are confident that this will help railways across the country. More details on this policy will follow in due course.