To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the change in numbers of passengers on Virgin Trains heading south from (a) Manchester, (b) Birmingham and (c) Liverpool through Milton Keynes in each of the next 10 years. (118968)

Virgin West Coast Trains is planning on an increase in the number of passenger journeys, principally from the long distance destinations of Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool as well the north west and Scotland, from a total of 20 million a year in 2006-07 to more than 30 million a year by 2011-12. The Department expect further and similar growth, year by year, on the route in the period beyond 2012.