To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the scope for reviving the former central railway freight line from the north and midlands to southern England. [HL4378]

The Government's strategy for developing the freight capability of the rail network is set out in “Strategic Freight Network: The Longer-Term Vision”, which is published on the Department for Transport website at http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/strategyfinance/strategy/freightnetwork/.

The Government remain unconvinced of the viability of proposals to reinstate part of the former Great Central Railway as a rail freight-only line.