To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to asking Network Rail to convene a meeting with an independent chairman with wide operating experience to identify ways of improving performance in railway movements in the North of England, particularly in relation to the bottleneck between Manchester Piccadilly and Oxford Road stations, without major infrastructure investment.

The Department recognises the importance of improving the performance of rail services around Manchester and last year Richard George, a railway industry leader with wide operating experience, looked at this subject. Since January, his work has been taken forward to be developed in detail by a Task Force co-ordinated by Network Rail and involving train operators, Transport for the North and other stakeholders. This Task Force is working up options for improving performance through timetable changes without infrastructure investment, as well as considering the appropriate infrastructure investment in the longer term.