Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government and Merseyrail on electrification of the Wrexham to Bidston railway line.
Answered by Claire Perry
The proposals to electrify the Wrexham to Bidston rail line are a local matter and being led by Merseytravel and the Welsh Government. My Department has not been involved at this stage in the proposals. The Welsh Government is considering the economic benefits of investment on a number of lines in North Wales.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the change in real terms of the cost of travelling by (a) private car, (b) bus, (c) train and (d) domestic air flight between (i) 2000 and 2010 and (ii) 2010 and 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department for Transport published statistics on travel costs, based on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in the Transport Statistics Great Britain compendium.
Data from the independent ONS suggests that:
(i) Between 2000 and 2010 the real cost of motoring, including the purchase of a vehicle, declined by 8%, bus and coach fares increased by 20% and rail fares increased by 15% in real terms.
(ii) Between 2010 and 2014 the real cost of motoring, including the purchase of a vehicle, decreased by 5%, bus and coach fares increased by 2% and rail fares increased by 6% in real terms.
(iii) The costs of travelling by air are not available from ONS data. However information is available based on fare data from the Civil Aviation Authority. The real cost of the average UK one-way air fare, including taxes and charges, covering domestic flights from 2000 to 2010 declined by 41% and from 2010 to 2013 declined by 4%, reflecting a range of factors including increased competition between airlines. Estimates for 2014 are not yet available.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 6 November 2014 to Question 213147, if he will take steps to reflect the percentage journey share for cycling in the proportion of his Department's spending that is made on cycling.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Funding allocations for transport schemes are not determined according to mode share – the factors that affect our decision to invest in a particular transport scheme are more complex and based on a wide variety of factors. For local transport schemes it is also right that local communities, through their local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships have influence over those decisions.
On 27 November 2014, the Deputy Prime Minister and I announced a further £214m investment for cycling. This brings the total investment in cycling by this Government to £588m, significantly more than any previous Government.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many individual visits there were to the Transport Direct website in each of the last five years.
Answered by Claire Perry
The number of individual visits to the Transport Direct Portal for each of the last 5 years was:
2010 – 20,006,225
2011 – 21,895,718
2012 – 21,823,246
2013 – 21,475,200
2014 – 14,848,951(Jan to Sept when it was closed down)
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of passenger journeys in the UK were made by bicycle in each of the last five years; and what share of his Department's spending related to cycling in that time period.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The table below shows the percentage of all trips made by bicycle between 2009 and 2013:
| Average number of trips (trip rates) by main mode: England, to 2013 | |||||
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |
| Bicycle | 16 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 14 |
| All modes | 974 | 961 | 950 | 950 | 923 |
| Cycling mode share % | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 |
Soure: NTS, Last updated: 29 July 2014
During the five financial years 2010/11 to 2014/15, departmental spending on cycling is detailed in the table below:
| Financial years 2010/11 - 2014/15 | Direct funding £224 million | |
| £million | ||
| Cycling Englad | 63.0 | |
| Cycling Cities & National Parks Fund | 94.0 | |
| Links to Schools & Linking Communities | 28.5 | |
| Cycle Safety Fund | 35.0 | |
| Cycle Rail | 14.5 | |
| Highways Agency | 4.8 | |
| Local Sustainable Transport Fund - Bikeability | 46.8 | |
| Local Sustainable Transport Fund - other cycling | 151.0 | |
| Total | 437.6 |
The £438 million on cycling spend represents 0.71% of the total departmental spend for those years.