Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their plans to improve East-West rail links, whether the Liverpool to Norwich service will split at Nottingham; if so, why; and what assessment they have made of this decision, in terms of both costs and revenue.

An in-principle decision to split the Norwich to Liverpool service at Nottingham was taken as part of the East Midlands franchising process and was included in the financial assessment of that project. This will be re-assessed prior to a final decision being taken.

The reasons for the decision were explained in the East Midlands Franchising Stakeholder Briefing Document published in June 2018. The benefits principally arise from being able to recognise the completely different characteristics and patronage levels of the services either side of Nottingham (87% of journeys are now within the Liverpool – Nottingham section) and then being able to develop the service offer accordingly, rather than simply perpetuating the linking of two separate services undertaken in the 1980s when the railway and its markets were very different.