Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to end the use of smart motorways.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The safety of everyone travelling on our roads is the Government’s priority, which is why we are committed to delivering a new Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade. We will not roll out new smart motorways and will set out next steps in due course.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will expedite the approval of additional trains to help resolve capacity issues on Chiltern Railways.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department continues to work closely with Chiltern Railways to support the delivery of its long-term fleet strategy and has recently approved Chiltern Railways’ Mk3 fleet replacement Outline Business Case (OBC). Chiltern now needs to produce the Final Business Case.
Chiltern also continues to review opportunities to maximise its passenger capacity within its current train fleet. In June 2024, Chiltern introduced an additional morning and evening peak service on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, between London Marylebone and Princes Risborough, which operated pre-COVID-19. This provides additional seating capacity in response to customer demand and crowding.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans she has to support vulnerable and disabled passengers affected by the closure of railway ticket offices in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Improving services for passengers is at the heart of our plans to improve Britain’s railways, and station staff play an important role in supporting passengers, especially those who require additional assistance. This Government has no plans to close ticket offices, and we expect train operating companies to take measures to ensure they are open at published times.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of train station ticket office closures on passengers in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Improving services for passengers is at the heart of our plans to improve Britain’s railways, and station staff play an important role in supporting passengers, especially those who require additional assistance. This Government has no plans to close ticket offices, and we expect train operating companies to take measures to ensure they are open at published times.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the cost of rail travel.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Affordability is one of our six key objectives for rail reform – wherever possible, prices should be kept at a point that works for both passengers and taxpayers.
We have just announced a new networkwide Rail Sale that will launch early next year to tie in with celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of Britain's passenger railways. Returning by popular demand, the sale will aim to encourage more people onto the railways by offering up to 50 per cent off train tickets for a specific time period.
We are also committed to simplifying ticketing and exploring options for expanding ticketing innovations like digital pay as you go, and digital season tickets across the network.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the terms of the agreement were with the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen that led to industrial action being called off at London North Eastern Railway.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Following discussions, on 29 August London North Eastern Railway (LNER) and ASLEF found a resolution to their long running local dispute at no extra cost to the taxpayer and preventing 22 days of industrial action whilst ensuring an improved service for passengers. LNER has agreed a new rest day working agreement with its drivers and has agreed to use driver managers in line with common industry practices.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help reduce the number of violent attacks on women and girls on rail services.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This government has set out its mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade and will treat this work as a national emergency.
No one should ever have to face the risk of violence or harassment when travelling on our transport networks.
We are taking action to make sure women and girls in particular feel safe on our transport network. We work closely with railway partners, including the British Transport Police (BTP), to achieve this. BTP utilises specialist teams of plain clothed and uniformed officers across the network to target and identify offenders. It uses enhanced patrols, with a directed, intelligence-led focus around the nighttime economy, providing high-visibility presence to reassure rail staff and the public.
Current public campaigns and support tools include the National Rail ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign aimed at ending sexual harassment and BTP’s Railway Guardian app, which provides safety advice, links to partner organisations and enables reporting of incidents to the force directly. Previous public awareness campaigns have included using real victim stories to encourage more members of the public to come forward and report incidents of sexual harassment to the force.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on average bus fares in (a) Aldershot constituency, (b) Hampshire and (c) England.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested regarding the average cost of bus fares is not available. The Department produces quarterly bus fare statistics in the form of a local bus fares index. However, this data is not available specifically for (a) Aldershot constituency, or (b) Hampshire. Data is available for (c) England and the latest publication can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-bus-fares-statistics-january-to-march-2024.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department plans to fund one third of the cost of the Hammersmith Bridge strengthening works.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department will be exploring funding options for a suite of transport related projects at the Spring Spending Review, including the Hammersmith Bridge strengthening works.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of replacing Hammersmith Bridge with a new structure.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Hammersmith Bridge is protected by Historic England. It is a Grade II Listed heritage asset, as it is a 'particularly important' national structure of 'more than special interest'.
The Department has not made any estimates of the cost of replacing the structure as the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham is the asset owner and project lead for the Hammersmith Bridge Restoration Project. The Borough has estimated that the cost of dismantling the current bridge and building a new bridge would be significantly more than the repair of the current bridge.