Simon Lightwood

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) on securing the debate and providing the opportunity to discuss Stockport railway station. I thank the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart) and my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) for their interventions. Let me start by talking a little bit about this important train station. Stockport station is a vital transport interchange in south Greater Manchester. Sitting on the west coast main line approach to Manchester Piccadilly, it provides access and connectivity across the country to commuters, leisure travel and freight. On average, 501 passenger and freight trains pass through the station per day. That is 10,000 paying passengers a day, with 5,000 to 6,000 passing through the station. The industry is working collaboratively to engage with local stakeholders who have concerns and a vision for the station. Network Rail’s engagement with local stakeholders is fundamental to shaping plans for the future of the station, and it will continue to welcome input and to be transparent about timescales and issues as they arise. The Stockport corridor is critical for a range of express, regional and local passenger services and freight. It supports some very important flows nationally as well as offering a key destination in the interchange hub at Stockport station itself. The route from Stockport into Manchester is very constrained, which means that it is extremely difficult to plan any additional services through it reliably. While other interfacing schemes might increase capacity and capability elsewhere on the network, the constraints at Stockport act as a bottleneck when trying to uplift service frequencies overall. Network Rail and the industry are working through the options to address capability and capacity, working with mayors and transport authorities on what future plans there could be for the Stockport corridor.