Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the damage to the new overhead electric lines in the Severn Tunnel.

As of the December 2019 timetable, Network Rail have been unable to successfully operate electric services in the Severn Tunnel due to contamination of overhead line insulators. This does not affect the benefits delivered by the December 2019 timetable, as the small journey time impact of running in diesel can be absorbed by the timetable. They have been working with Cardiff University to assess ways of mitigating the effects of the contamination and are installing electrical switching equipment to allow maintenance cleaning to be done more easily in the future. Testing will commence in Spring 2020, with an aim of commencing electric services before the end of 2020.