Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to ensure that private bus operators who provide a good service retain a viable role following any review of bus regulation.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport is committed to working at pace with bus operators, local transport authorities and passengers to deliver on the government’s plan for better bus services. For local areas who choose to franchise their bus services, operators will have the opportunity to bid for contracts to run services. The assessment of those bids to determine which local bus operators can best deliver the contracts will be for the franchising authority to conduct. Local transport authorities operating enhanced partnerships rather than franchising to deliver their bus services will continue to work collaboratively with their operators to ensure that standards are improved and maintained as required.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the assessment criteria used to forecast the results of investment in railway infrastructure.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department has a long-standing and established appraisal framework within Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG), which is aligned with HM Treasury Green Book on conducting welfare-based cost-benefit analysis to support a business case. Whilst this framework does not provide specific assessment criteria, it does provide general guidance on forecasting, estimating and assessing the costs and benefits of transport interventions, including railway infrastructure enhancements.
The Department continuously reviews its appraisal framework, through the TAG orderly release process, to improve the robustness of guidance provided and to reflect new research, trends and evaluation evidence. This typically involves a twice-yearly update to guidance, during Spring and Autumn.
Regarding railway infrastructure investment, the Department are actively considering research carried out by the Institute for Transport Studies, on behalf of the Rail Safety and Standards Board, and plan to bring forward improvements to associated guidance in the future.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any legislation they introduce regarding railways will include a review of the duties and powers of the Office of the Road and Rail Regulator, and how those duties and powers are being used.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
As part of preparing for the introduction of the Railways Bill, the Department will review the powers and duties of the Office of Rail and Road that relate to rail. We expect ORR's role in safety regulation and in monitoring National Highways to continue.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to prevent local authorities from taking measures to reduce traffic congestion in their areas.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to maintaining and renewing the road network, to ensure it serves drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and other road users.
Responsibility for traffic management on local roads rests with local traffic authorities. They have a statutory duty, under the Traffic Management Act 2004, to manage their networks with the aim of ‘securing the expeditious movement of traffic’, including the reduction of congestion and other disruption.
Local authorities already have a wide range of tools available to help them achieve this. As such, they are free to make decisions about what is needed on their roads, provided they take account of the relevant legislation.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to adopt a strategy for improving road safety.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government has announced that it intends to publish a new Strategic Framework for Road Safety, the first in over a decade. Work is already underway on this.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Davies of Gower on 13 May (HL4207), what impact the rigidity of the Network Code has had on the revision of train timetables on the East Coast Main Line; and what consideration they have given to instructing the parties, including the Office of Rail and Road, to revise the code to enable a satisfactory timetable to be delivered.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
The industry steering group that oversees timetable introduction concluded that there were too many outstanding issues to have confidence that the new East Coast Main Line timetable can be delivered robustly in December 2024.
Timetable production and access rights issues are governed by Network Rail’s Network Code, which is regulated by the ORR as the independent regulator to the rail industry. We expect the rail industry to work through these issues in order to deliver the upgraded timetable and realise the benefits of £4bn investment in track and train on the East Coast Main Line.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Davies of Gower on 29 April (HL3879), whether the latest announcement about the postponement of the introduction of an updated timetable for the East Coast Mainline Railway is due to the Office of Rail and Road's rigidity in agreeing access rights, which cannot be made flexible with the train operators' agreement.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
Timetable production and access rights issues are governed by Network Rail’s Network Code, which is regulated by the Office of Rail and Road. We expect the rail industry to work through these issues in order to deliver the upgraded timetable and realise the benefits of £4bn investment in track and train.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the revised timetable for the East Coast Main Line will be delivered by December 2024.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
We are disappointed with the deferment of the East Coast Main Line timetable upgrade which cannot be delivered robustly in December 2024.
The industry steering group that oversees timetable introduction concluded that there are too many outstanding issues to have confidence in the upgrade being ready in 2024.
It is important that Network Rail continues to develop a process for delivering the upgraded timetable and realising the benefits of £4 billion investment in track and train.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to develop a recovery strategy for rail routes on which reduced services following the COVID-19 pandemic but have now recouped revenue and passenger numbers.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
As the pandemic has changed travel habits, train operators are using this opportunity to reassess their services to provide rail timetables that respond to new passenger travel patterns, and carefully balance cost, capacity and performance.
Timetables should be demand-led and built with flexibility in mind, so if passenger numbers increase as we continue to recover from the pandemic, we can look to accommodate additional services. Where operators have modified their timetables, the changes are kept under review and, where appropriate, adjusted to reflect fluctuations in demand. Additional services will be included in the upcoming timetable change.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the performance of open-access operators compares with the major operator of services on the routes which they share.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
The Office of Rail and Road collects and publishes data on cancellations, reliability and punctuality of all rail operators, including Open Access operators. This is set out in the attached table.