Lord Scriven – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2015-12-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the status of the Northern Powerhouse rail network, what schemes are incorporated into its remit, what budget it has allocated to it and by whom, what the governance structure is, and what powers it has.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The government and Transport for the North (TfN) published the Northern Transport Strategy in March 2015, setting out the vision for the Northern Powerhouse Rail network: radically improved journey times and frequencies between the major cities of the North, building on the substantial improvements to rail in the North to which the government is already committed.

In November, the government and Transport for the North published the Northern Transport Strategy: Autumn Report, providing a progress update on the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) network.

The government has also committed a total of £50 million of funding over this parliament to Transport for the North, to help it develop plans to transform the North’s rail connections and build a single regional economy.

Work on Northern Powerhouse Rail is governed jointly by the Department for Transport (DfT) and Transport for the North as set out in Principles for Governing the Relationship Between TfN and DfT.