Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure the equitable distribution of rail funding.

The Department for Transport published its Transport Investment Strategy on the 5^th July 2017, which describes new rebalancing measures to deliver a stronger, fairer Britain. We want to ensure that transport investment programmes, including rail, contribute to a more balanced economy, increase productivity or growth, support new housing, improve reliability and tackle congestion.

As described in the Strategy, the Department is developing a new assessment standard that will require investment programmes to be judged on how they contribute towards creating a more balanced economy, as part of the overall assessment of their strategic case.