Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they are giving to the improvement of rail services between South West England, the Midlands, and the North of England and Scotland, including significant enhancements of rail infrastructure, so as to reduce any need for passenger air services between those areas.

Following investment at Derby and Ambergate, CrossCountry has reduced the journey time of some services from Birmingham to Newcastle by 30 minutes and is looking at accelerating more services in future timetables.

Additional capacity is due to be provided on the CrossCountry services between Scotland and the South-west via Birmingham during 2020 and 2021. The Department is looking at options to increase capacity and improve journey times on the East Coast Mainline while Network Rail is delivering improvements in the Bristol area and an £80m project to upgrade the sea wall at Dawlish for the future to deliver more reliable rail services to Devon and Cornwall