To ask the Secretary of Stale for Transport how much money has been approved for re-equipment of the Kent link services; and if he will make a statement.

Approval has been given to the following investment in Kent link:

Project	Cost £ million
Initial build of 400 Class 465 Networker vehicles (to make 4-car trains)	297
86 Class 466 Networker vehicles (2-car version of Class 465)	67
A further 188 Class 465 vehicles	127
Infrastructure (including platform lengthening)	120
Total	611

The Government have just increased British Rail's external finance limit for next year by nearly £1 billion to a total of over £2 billion. It is for BR to allocate resources to specific schemes within its external finance limit: that limit is not hypothecated to particular projects.