Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 29 January, when was the cross-industry North West Recovery Task Force established; who are the members of that task force; and when they expect it to "deliver recommendations on how best to boost capacity and performance in the short, medium and longer term".

The task force is considering a number of options that can be implemented to improve the performance and capacity of all rail services through Greater Manchester. It was established in January 2020 with members from Network Rail, DfT, stakeholders and train operators. It is considering and assessing a range of potential timetable and infrastructure changes across the short, medium and long term and I expect the first recommendations to be made later this year.