Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for (1) ensuring certainty in the programme for transport infrastructure investment; (2) changing the regional balances in transport infrastructure investment as between London and the South East, and other regions in England; and (3) cancelling Crossrail 2 and investing a similar amount in the north of England and other English regions.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government recognises the importance of securing long-term transport infrastructure investment, as outlined in the recently published National Infrastructure Strategy. Though the scope of the Spending Review this year was refocused on supporting the government’s response to Covid-19, the Department secured over £60 billion in multi-year investment – providing certainty for major transport infrastructure programmes.
Investing in transport infrastructure is critical to increasing connectivity and driving regional growth, which are central to this government’s ambition to level up the UK. The Spending Review delivered investment for regions across the entire UK - including announcing a new £4 billion levelling-up fund, £4.2 billion for city regions across England as part of Intra-City Transport Funding and a commitment of over £22 billion to fund HS2 Phases One, 2a and 2b Western Leg to deliver essential North-South connectivity, greater capacity and shorter journey times.
The Department is also working to implement the findings of the Green Book Review. The refreshed Green Book will support levelling up by ensuring that projects are being assessed first and foremost on how well they deliver policy objectives rather than focusing on a purely economic assessment. For the first time, business cases for all proposals will have to set out how they will impact different places aligning with relevant local strategies and major interventions in the area.
Transport projects are kept under continual review. Given current affordability constraints, Transport for London has confirmed that they are not in a position to prioritise investment in Crossrail 2, and the Government has agreed that they will stop development on the project. This frees up investment to raise the performance of public transport networks in our regional cities.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) is the timetable, and (2) are their plans, for ending the Governance for Railway Investment Projects scheme; what, if anything, will replace that scheme; and what will be the relationship between any such replacement and the Rail Enhancement Projects Pipeline.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Network Rail’s management approach to projects is under review. Network Rail intend to replace the Governance for Railway Investment Projects (GRIP) with Projects Accelerated in a Controlled Environment (PACE) in the coming months. There is no there is no direct relationship between GRIP and the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which projects are presently included in the Governance for Railway Investment Projects scheme; and at which stage is each such project at.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Every rail investment project managed by Network Rail follows GRIP. It is not practical to list the GRIP stage of each project. Network Rail do, however, publish the Enhancements Delivery Plan each quarter, which sets out progress on Enhancement schemes in delivery. The next iteration of the Enhancements Delivery Plan will be published in December.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they have provided to local highways authorities about the retention of pop-up cycle lanes created during the COVID-19 pandemic; and whether the presumption is that such lanes should remain unless there are significant and unsurmountable problems with them.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Active Travel Fund has made £225M available to local authorities in two tranches, to allow them to provide safer walking and cycling measures to support a green recovery in response to Covid-19. Alongside the funding, the Government published additional Network Management Duty guidance. This clearly sets out what the Government expects local authorities to do in making changes to their road layouts to encourage cycling and walking.
The guidance sets out that local authorities should monitor and evaluate any temporary measures they install, such as pop-up cycle lanes, with a view to making them permanent, and embedding a long-term shift to active travel as we move from restart to recovery. This may include adjusting temporary schemes in the light of feedback from stakeholders.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 21 October (HL Deb, col 1532), whether contracts have been agreed for the work to be undertaken under Stage 2 (Develop) of the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP) relating to the reinstatement of the railway between Colne and Skipton; if so, with which persons or organisation were these contracts awarded to; whether this work has been paused as part of the review of the schemes in the RNEP; if so, when they expect a decision will be made to restart or otherwise; and what is the current status of the Colne-Skipton project.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
I would like to reiterate my sincere apologies for an error made in my response during the debate on 21 October. The correct position of this scheme is that, following advice on the outcome of previous feasibility work, we have asked officials to bring forward specific proposals for approval for initial ‘Develop’ stage work on this reinstatement. Therefore, no contracts have been agreed yet. Officials are preparing proposals for consideration by Ministers for further work on the possible reinstatement of railway between Skipton and Colne and an announcement will be made shortly.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of calls for reforms to, and new investment in, bus services by the Local Government Association transport spokesperson Councillor David Renard on 28 October.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
In order to ensure that essential bus services can continue to operate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government is providing an unprecedented amount of support to the bus sector. In addition to the Coronavirus Bus Support Service Grant (CBSSG), worth up to £27.3 million per week and funded by Central Government, we continue to ask Local Authorities to pay out concessionary bus fares at budgeted, pre-COVID, levels. Allowance for this has been made as part of their Local Revenue Grant.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment have they made of (1) the reliability of rail services under reduced service levels during the COVID-19 pandemic, and (2) the value of a future railway timetable which is set at less than theoretical maximum capacity levels.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government and the rail industry revised the train timetable to ensure passengers received a regular and reliable service throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We took early action to stabilise the industry, which enabled the continued operation of critical passenger and freight services. Throughout the pandemic, performance levels have increased substantially, with the number of recorded station stops arrived at on time being over 15% higher than in the same period in 2019. We continue to work closely with industry to make sure we strike the right balance between running the maximum levels of service that can be resourced reliably and protecting taxpayers’ best interests.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to allocate the remainder of the £2 billion investment to create “a new era for walking and cycling”, announced on 9 May.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
On 28 July the Prime Minister launched ambitious plans to boost cycling and walking, which set a long-term vision for half of all journeys in towns and cities to be cycled or walked by 2030. The plans include a £2 billion package of funding for active travel over the next 5 years.
£225 million has been allocated to local authorities this financial year through the Emergency Active Travel Fund for immediate measures including new cycle lanes, wider pavements and safer junctions. £25 million has been allocated to cycle maintenance initiatives, including the Fix Your Bike Voucher Scheme and the Big Bike Revival. Decisions on the remainder will be for the Spending Review in the autumn.