Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

On 23 July the Government announced a major £1.1 billion programme of rail electrification for the Great Western Main Line from London to Swansea and the line between Liverpool and Manchester via Newton-le-Willows.

Liverpool-Manchester electrification will enable the diesel trains currently operating there to be transferred onto other routes, delivering much needed additional capacity. Many services will be able to operate as six-carriage trains instead of three-carriage trains today. It will also provide an electrified link to the West Coast Main Line, allowing the operation of electric train services from Manchester to Scotland. As a result, the previously planned procurement by the Government of new diesel trains has now been superseded. The Government will publish a new rolling stock plan this autumn, taking account of these changed circumstances.

On 15 September 2009, we announced that the Yorkshire Tram Train Trail was being re-phased with a view to the early introduction of trams between Rotherham and Sheffield using both the Sheffield Supertram Network and Network Rail infrastructure. This project involves South Yorkshire PTE, Network Rail, Northern Trains and the Department for Transport and all partners are working hard to get an early introduction of through trams along the route to demonstrate the benefits of combining heavy and light rail infrastructure.