Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 21 December 2015 (HL4413), whether passengers are involved in developing schemes for the railway between Salisbury and Exeter to meet their needs and support economic growth; and if so, how.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Network Rail’s Route Studies are part of the rail industry’s Long Term Planning Process. They look at the period from 2019 to 2043. They interpret the outputs from the previous market studies to determine the specific aspirations in terms of capacity and connectivity for the geographical area based on detailed demand analysis to forecast growth tailored to create specific forecasts for geographical areas.

The analysis identifies where forecast demand is likely to be mismatched with anticipated capacity and indicates where interventions such as train lengthening or additional services may be required.

Network Rail set up regional and wider stakeholder groups for both the Wessex and the Western Route Studies. Passenger representatives were involved in all these groups and the 90 day public consultations on the draft route studies received responses from a wide range of parties including individual members of public, campaign and user groups, MPs and local authorities which are summarised in the final Route Study documents . Copies of both Route Studies have been placed in the Library of the House.