Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 15 May 2003 to Question 113237 on rail strikes, whether (a) he or (b) his Department has had any correspondence with West Midlands Trains on reimbursement for potential industrial action.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
There has been no correspondence between the Department and West Midlands Trains on this subject.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 15 May 2003 to Question 113237 on rail strikes, whether West Midlands Trains has an indemnification clause in its franchise agreement with the Department for Transport allowing it to apply for reimbursement for revenues lost as a consequence of official industrial action.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
In common with other rail franchises, the West Midlands Trains Franchise Agreement includes a standard provision whereby the Secretary of State is able to, at his discretion, reimburse net losses arising from Industrial Action. This can be viewed at Clause 5 of Schedule 8.1 of Franchise Agreement which is on the Department’s web site at:
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of bus routes that have been (a) added and (b) removed since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Jones
My Department does not hold this data, as decisions about the provision of bus services, including the frequency, the level of fares or agreed local concessions are mainly a matter for the operator concerned.
Where there is not enough demand for a bus route to be commercially viable in its own right, all local authorities have powers to subsidise bus services, Provision of subsidised services is a matter for individual English local authorities, in the light of their other spending priorities.
We are very aware however of the importance of bus services to local communities, and in recognition of this we were able to protect Bus Service Operators Grant funding as part of the 2015 Spending Review. We have also protected the national concessionary travel in England for the whole of this Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the potential benefits for bus passengers of municipal ownership of bus companies.
Answered by Andrew Jones
There are a few towns and cities that have municipal bus operators, however no analysis has been undertaken by the Department for Transport to understand the potential benefits of those models for passengers.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had on devolving responsibility for rail services to the Midlands.
Answered by Claire Perry
West Midlands Rail made a submission to the Secretary of State in October 2014 to devolve rail services in the West Midlands region. The Secretary of State confirmed his support in a letter to West Midlands Rail in March 2015 for rail devolution in the West Midlands and set out the expectation that West Midlands Rail will work with the Department for Transport in developing the specification for the re-letting of the next franchise. A public consultation was launched jointly with West Midlands Rail in December 2015 to inform the specification of the next West Midlands franchise. The new West Midlands Franchise is expected to commence in October 2017.