Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the sustainability of the level of Network Rail debt.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As reported in their Annual Report and Accounts 2019, Network Rail has £54.1bn of historical debt, of which £30.6bn has resulted from loan funding from the Department for Transport over the course of Railway Control Period 5.
Network Rail have been restricted from raising any further commercial debt since they were reclassified to the public sector in 2014. Since the start of Railway Control Period 6 in April 2019, the Department has chosen to provide funding for operating, maintaining and enhancing the railway through grant rather than loan funding. The level of debt is therefore not expected to rise from its current level.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the level of debt sustained by Network Rail.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As reported in their Annual Report and Accounts 2019, Network Rail has £54.1bn of historical debt, of which £30.6bn has resulted from loan funding from the Department for Transport over the course of Railway Control Period 5.
Network Rail have been restricted from raising any further commercial debt since they were reclassified to the public sector in 2014. Since the start of Railway Control Period 6 in April 2019, the Department has chosen to provide funding for operating, maintaining and enhancing the railway through grant rather than loan funding. The level of debt is therefore not expected to rise from its current level.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of his Department’s decision to delay the re-tendering of the East Midlands Trains franchise from October 2015 to August 2019 on the compliance of that operator’s fleet with rail accessibility requirements which came into force on 1 January 2020.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
No specific assessment on rolling stock compliance has been made regarding the effect of re-scheduling the franchise competitions. We continue to push the rail industry for continuous improvement to deliver accessible journeys, and an accessible fleet is planned to be in place on the East Midlands franchise from December 2020.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2020 to Question 1753, what assessment he has made of the (a) forward and (b) backward looking financial ratios of First/MTR on South Western Railway received by his Department on 20 January 2020.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The latest financial ratios received by South Western Railway on 17th January 2020 confirmed that they were fully compliant with the relevant financial ratio requirements of its Franchise Agreement.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the review of the Stagecoach and Virgin Trains passport on the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise started five weeks before his Department made the decision to terminate that contract in June 2018.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Stagecoach were informed on 27 March 2018 explaining that the Department was going to convene a Discretionary Rejection panel (the passport review panel) in anticipation of a termination event.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) forward and (b) backward looking financial ratios of First/MTR on South Western Railway.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department can confirm that South Western Railway was fully compliant with the relevant financial ratio requirements of its Franchise Agreement based on the financial performance data received on 20 December 2019.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to review the rail franchising passports held by the parent group operators (a) First Group, (b) Arriva and (c) Abellio in the light of recent performance by respective subsidiary train operating companies.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The criteria under which the Department may undertake a review of any prequalification Passport is clearly set out in the Passport documentation, which is publicly available:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rail-franchising-pqq-passport-documentation
Should these criteria be met for any current operator, the Department would initiate a review.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 4 November 2019 to Question 7726 on London-Exeter Railway Line: Rolling Stock, whether he has exercised the call option over the leasing costs of the 36 Eversholt Rail funded class 802 b-modes operating on the West of England route of the Great Western Region; and whether the discussions with the incumbent operator to secure the best price for all train leases for the existing train fleet have concluded.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As part of considerations for the future of the franchise, the Department is engaged with the incumbent operator in commercially confidential discussions in order to secure the best prices available for all train leases for the existing train fleet, which includes the Class 802’s.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many fatalities there have been on the rail network in each year since 2010.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Official statistics for fatalities on the mainline railway network in Great Britain are published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), using information from the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB).
The latest statistics (for years up to 2018-19) are published on the ORR website at:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/health-and-safety/rail-safety/
Statistics for fatalities and suicides from 2009-10 to 2018-19 are included in Table 1 below, separated by suicides and non-suicide fatalities.
Table 1: Number of mainline railway fatalities: 2009-10 to 2018-19
Financial Year | Non-suicide fatalities | Suicides | Total fatalities |
2009-10 | 64 | 243 | 307 |
2010-11 | 39 | 209 | 248 |
2011-12 | 53 | 250 | 303 |
2012-13 | 49 | 245 | 294 |
2013-14 | 40 | 275 | 315 |
2014-15 | 49 | 286 | 335 |
2015-16 | 46 | 251 | 297 |
2016-17 | 39 | 237 | 276 |
2017-18 | 49 | 250 | 299 |
2018-19 | 40 | 271 | 311 |
These figures include passenger fatalities, public fatalities (including trespassers, level crossing users and suicides) and workforce fatalities. Workforce includes all fatalities that occurred whilst working for the railway, including those that did not happen on the rail network (for instance, whilst travelling via road from one work station to another).
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on the number of bus journeys made in the year to March 2019 of the increase in bus fares during that period.
Answered by George Freeman
There are a variety of reasons for the fall in bus patronage. This includes congestion, affecting bus service reliability and punctuality, which industry leaders have remarked upon publicly last week as one of the key issues impacting on bus patronage. That is why the Department’s ‘A Better Deal for Bus Users’ published recently stated that all new road investments receiving central UK government funding will be required to either support bus priority measures to improve bus journey times and reliability or explain why doing so would not be necessary or appropriate in that instance. All future funding bids will need to explicitly address this issue.
In addition, the Bus Services Act 2017 provides the tools local authorities in England need such as Enhanced Partnerships and Franchising to improve local bus services. From 2020, a number of measures such as Bus Open Data powers, and the commitments in the Better Deal for Bus Users, will help increase passenger numbers and help passengers secure best value tickets.