PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Railways: North of England (14 January 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on (a) the electrification of, (b) the introduction of new rolling stock to and (c) other improvements to TransPennine services on the Huddersfield rail line.

Asked by:
Jonathan Reynolds (Labour)

The TransPennine Route Upgrade programme is expected to be the Government’s biggest single investment in our country’s existing railway in the next five years. We expect to make a decision later this year to progress the programme to the next phase of design and construction, during which we will confirm our approach to electrification and other improvement activity.

As part of its £500m investment in trains, TransPennine Express (TPE) is currently introducing three state-of-the-art fleets made up of 44 new trains into passenger service, which will provide 13 million extra seats a year once they are all in service in 2020. Passengers along the Huddersfield line will benefit from these high quality trains and their extra capacity - equivalent to a rise of more than 80 per cent on a seven day a week timetable across the TPE network.

The above demonstrates that this Government is committed to levelling up all parts of this country.

Answered by:
Chris Heaton-Harris (Conservative)
22 January 2020