Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) investing in improving rail connectivity between northern cities, and (2) the economic benefits of such investment compared to those anticipated from HS2.

By 2020 we will have spent over £13bn improving and modernising transport in the North of England. This investment includes providing better rail journeys through the Great North Rail Project. We have also upgraded the network between Liverpool and Manchester and the two new franchises are delivering more than 500 brand-new train carriages, with room for 40,000 more passengers and 2,000 extra services a week. In Liverpool City Region, £340m is being invested between now and 2019 to provide a bigger, better, more reliable railway for passengers.

The Government is committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) – a transformational programme to bring the cities of the North closer together with faster and more frequent rail links. At Budget the Chancellor announced a further £37m to develop the scheme. This is on top of the £60m we have made available to Transport for the North to develop the business case for the scheme by the end of this year and will include an assessment of the economic benefits of the scheme.

HS2 brings similar benefits in improved connectivity between the major cities of the North and Midlands. The HS2 business case shows over £92 billion of benefits including £18 billion of wider benefits e.g. – delivering more than £2 of benefits for every £1 of investment. This represents good value for money and is in line with other major rail schemes.

HS2 is also critical in engineering terms to delivering Northern Powerhouse Rail as HS2 infrastructure is assumed to be used by NPR services. The Chancellor announced £300m in October 2017 to ensure that HS2 is future-proofed for Northern Powerhouse Rail.