Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 23 November (HL10065), what stage the project to reinstate the railway between Colne and Skipton had reached in the Governance for Railway Investment Projects (GRIP) process; whether the GRIP process has now been paused or abandoned for this project; and if so, what would be the criteria to restart the GRIP process for this project.

The work carried out to date on infrastructure options for this scheme by Network Rail and Steer is assessed overall by Network Rail as being ‘pre-GRIP’. Further work on developing the infrastructure options is included within the proposals for initial ‘Develop’ stage work referred to in my answer of 23^rd November (HL10065).