Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to introduce a specific width limit for passenger cars.
Answered by Guy Opperman
A width limit for passenger cars is already in place. All vehicles are required to meet rigorous requirements for safety to protect occupants and other road users and stringent environmental standards. With respect to climate change, our Zero Emission Vehicle mandate will put us on a pathway to ensuring that, by 2035, all new cars and vans will be zero emissions at the exhaust.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which of the commitments in the 2021 Transport Decarbonisation Plan have been (a) completed and (b) abandoned; and when he plans to complete each of the remaining commitments.
Answered by Anthony Browne
The Government’s 2021 Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP) set out 78 commitments to support decarbonisation of the UK’s transport system by 2050. Since then, significant progress has been made with over a third of these commitments having been delivered or exceeded within three years. For example, the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate entered into force in January 2024 - the world’s most ambitious national level regulation of its kind. We regularly review our transport decarbonisation policies to ensure they are on track and are committed to publishing our progress and reviewing our net zero pathway at least every five years.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish a list of civil enforcement areas that were granted to local authorities for the enforcement of bus lanes in 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
No additional local authorities were granted bus lane enforcement powers in 2023.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects to publish his Department's response to its consultation entitled Ending the sale of new, non-zero emission buses, coaches and minibuses, published on 26 March 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The National Bus Strategy and Transport Decarbonsiation Plan contained a commitment to set a legal end date for the sale of new diesel buses and set an expectation for when the entire bus fleet will be zero-emission.
In spring 2022, the Department consulted on determining the exact date for ending the sale of new, non-zero emission buses. Calls for evidence about the decarbonisation of coaches and minibuses were also conducted. We will provide further information in due course.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Bus Back Better: national bus strategy for England, published on 15 March 2021, what his planned timetable is for the review of the rights of local authorities to set up new municipal bus companies.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department intends to publish a Call for Evidence , as the first part of a review into whether it remains right that local authorities cannot set up new municipal bus companies.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the total length of bus lanes per local transport authority.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department for Transport does not hold this information.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his planned timetable is for the publication of the draft Rail Reform Bill.
Answered by Huw Merriman
We will be bringing forward a draft Bill on Great British Railways (GBR) for pre-legislative scrutiny in this session.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the projected passenger number were in the business case for each (a) new station and (b) reopened rail line in the last 10 years; and what the actual passenger numbers were in each case 12 months after they opened.
Answered by Huw Merriman
Benefit Cost Ratios (BCRs) within the economic case are only one element of decision-making on schemes and should be considered alongside the other cases in the five case business model used in Government (strategic, economic, financial, commercial and management cases). Therefore we do not routinely make BCRs available.
Details of Rail infrastructure and assets lists new stations opened in the financial year can be found here https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/infrastructure-and-emissions/rail-infrastructure-and-assets/ Not all of these were promoted by the Department.
Estimates of station usage contains annual estimates of the number of entries/exits and interchanges at each station in Great Britain https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage
In practice it can take a number of years for long term demand patterns to emerge for new stations. The Department (and bodies who promote their own schemes) have a long standing and established appraisal framework to help scheme promoters forecast passenger demand of new stations and lines. We are continuing to monitor our framework and use evaluation to understand the impacts of schemes.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the actual benefit-cost ratio for each (a) new station built and (b) reopened line in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Huw Merriman
Benefit Cost Ratios (BCRs) within the economic case are only one element of decision-making on schemes and should be considered alongside the other cases in the five case business model used in Government (strategic, economic, financial, commercial and management cases). Therefore we do not routinely make BCRs available.
Details of Rail infrastructure and assets lists new stations opened in the financial year can be found here https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/infrastructure-and-emissions/rail-infrastructure-and-assets/ Not all of these were promoted by the Department.
Estimates of station usage contains annual estimates of the number of entries/exits and interchanges at each station in Great Britain https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage
In practice it can take a number of years for long term demand patterns to emerge for new stations. The Department (and bodies who promote their own schemes) have a long standing and established appraisal framework to help scheme promoters forecast passenger demand of new stations and lines. We are continuing to monitor our framework and use evaluation to understand the impacts of schemes.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the benefit-cost ratios were for each (a) new station built and (b) reopened line in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Huw Merriman
Benefit Cost Ratios (BCRs) within the economic case are only one element of decision-making on schemes and should be considered alongside the other cases in the five case business model used in Government (strategic, economic, financial, commercial and management cases). Therefore we do not routinely make BCRs available.
Details of Rail infrastructure and assets lists new stations opened in the financial year can be found here https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/infrastructure-and-emissions/rail-infrastructure-and-assets/ Not all of these were promoted by the Department.
Estimates of station usage contains annual estimates of the number of entries/exits and interchanges at each station in Great Britain https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage
In practice it can take a number of years for long term demand patterns to emerge for new stations. The Department (and bodies who promote their own schemes) have a long standing and established appraisal framework to help scheme promoters forecast passenger demand of new stations and lines. We are continuing to monitor our framework and use evaluation to understand the impacts of schemes.