Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on how many occasions in the last year he has met the rail Industry readiness Board.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Thameslink Industry Readiness Board is independently chaired by Chris Gibb and in his role as chair of this Board he has met or had conference calls with the Secretary of State for Transport on at least three occasions over the past year.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, who the members of the Rail Industry Readiness Board are.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The parties represented at the Thameslink Industry Readiness Board are:
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to support the development of skills specifically to help deliver the Government's infrastructure programmes.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
We are on the front foot in ensuring we have the skills needed to deliver transport infrastructure investment. We have a comprehensive skills strategy and are making excellent progress on its delivery. There is strong collaboration across the sector – with roads and rail; freight; maritime and ports and aviation (Heathrow) through the Strategic Transport Apprenticeship Taskforce. 2,000 apprenticeships were created last year and we expect up to 35,000 more in road and rail by 2022, exceeding our initial ambition.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what percentage of cancellations on Southern on the Brighton mainline in the last two years has been due to lack of train crew.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) reports cancellation information to the Department at franchise level. Additionally, the rail industry systems which capture disruption data do not differentiate between cancellations as a result of lack of train crew and other causes attributed to train crew (for example operational reasons). The percentage of all GTR’s cancellations attributed to train crew issues over the past two years is 38%.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what representations he has made to Network Rail on the sale of surplus land in its ownership.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Secretary of State meets regularly with the leadership team of Network Rail to discuss progress on a range of topics including releasing surplus land.
Both the Secretary of State for Transport and Network Rail are committed to releasing land for housing where possible. Network Rail is delivering a detailed programme of sales nationally to free up land for housing and to generate proceeds that can be reinvested into the railway.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of road signs on the A281 in West Sussex.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The A281 in West Sussex is maintained by West Sussex County Council. This includes repair and maintenance of road signs.