To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the likely change in the number of rail passengers in the 12 months from April 2009.

The Department for Transport does not make forecasts of year-on-year changes in rail passenger numbers. The Government's High Level Output Specification for the railways for the period 2009-14 is set out in the White Paper "Delivering a Sustainable Railway", published in July 2007. This forecasts rail passenger numbers for 2008-09 and specifies the additional numbers to be accommodated on the network by the end of the 2013-14.