To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate she has made of the (a) cost and (b) time required to complete high speed rail links from London to (i) Birmingham, (ii) Manchester and (iii) Scotland. (195176)

[holding answer 19 March 2008]: In developing the July 2007 Rail White Paper, the Department for Transport commissioned work on various inter-urban capacity options. One element of this work suggested a high-speed line between London and Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow might cost £29 billion. It should be noted that, informed by this and other work, the White Paper made clear that a new line was not necessary in the period 2009-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what her policy is on committing to (a) network wide electrification, (b) a high speed line and (c) other all or nothing projects. (195642)

[holding answer 20 March 2008]: Electrification and new rail lines are not necessarily ‘all or nothing’ projects. We are beginning work with the rail industry to re-examine the long-term cases for electrification and new lines. Options identified may include incremental solutions such as electrifying short stretches of line where there is a strong argument in favour of doing so.