Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of improvement to rail infrastructure in Wales were funded by (a) the Government and (b) Welsh government in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Paul Maynard
I have asked Network Rail to collate the information and provide this directly to the Honourable Member.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much was invested in improving railway infrastructure in each region of England and Wales in each year since 2010.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Figures on public sector spend at a regional and national level are part of the Government’s Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) statistics. CRA statistics for all capital expenditure by central and local governments and other public bodies on rail transport are provided in the table below.
The benefits from this spend on transport interventions will often accrue to passengers far beyond the residents of the immediate local area or region. This is particularly the case for spending on the railways which connect cities and regions across the country and delivery broader benefits beyond the region concerned. Whilst the CRA attempts to allocate expenditure on the basis of which region benefits from the spend, rather than where it is made, inevitably allocations are not always precise.
Regarding spend in London, London has a substantial number of daily commuters and visitors, both domestically and internationally, who will be using and benefitting from the public transport networks in London but who aren’t residents in London.
The unique scale and urban density of London by comparison to other parts of the country also means that it is particularly adapted to large scale public transport networks.
Public expenditure (capital) on rail by year and region, from 2009-10. Source: HMT.
Nominal values in £ millions
Region | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
North East | 115 | 109 | 147 | 156 | 145 | 148 | 177 |
North West | 463 | 454 | 791 | 729 | 662 | 616 | 919 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 331 | 322 | 357 | 367 | 359 | 333 | 600 |
East Midlands | 171 | 160 | 226 | 183 | 157 | 180 | 308 |
West Midlands | 267 | 258 | 343 | 300 | 318 | 427 | 580 |
East | 308 | 295 | 389 | 430 | 432 | 582 | 862 |
London | 2,367 | 2,384 | 2,727 | 3,028 | 3,259 | 3,886 | 5,164 |
South East | 633 | 640 | 670 | 747 | 734 | 801 | 1,187 |
South West | 239 | 229 | 215 | 225 | 210 | 219 | 357 |
Wales | 196 | 186 | 210 | 222 | 210 | 238 | 320 |
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will list the National Rail projects in Wales which were (a) finished on time and on budget and (b) not finished on time and on budget in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Wales route was only created in 2011, so data prior to this is not available. I have asked Network Rail to collate the information and provide this directly to the Honourable Member.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many miles of new railway track were laid in each region of England and Wales in each year since 2010.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Office of Rail and Road publish railway infrastructure statistics, which contain the total length of track in Great Britain (including Scotland) by year.
This information is available here: http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/c35e0c28-324f-4168-81b9-be197963f251
This information is not available by region.
The year-on-year change in track length is the net change of new track added minus length of track closed. Therefore, a year-on-year increase does not necessarily equal the total length of new track added.
Network Rail manage the infrastructure, but they geographically organise the network by ‘Routes’ rather than by region, therefore this information is not available by region.
Track Miles of the rail network in Great Britain. Source: ORR
Year | Total track miles |
2009-10 | 19,312 |
2010-11 | 19,334 |
2011-12 | 19,306 |
2012-13 | 19,313 |
2013-14 | 19,324 |
2014-15 | 19,341 |
2015-16* | 19,387 |
*Provisional.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of railway track is located in each region of England and Wales.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Network Rail have informed me that there is over 20,000 miles of track in total in the UK; with Scotland having 2,800 track miles, and Wales having over 1,400 track miles
As a proportion by Government region, Network Rail has provided the following information:
Region | Proportion (%) | Region | Proportion (%) |
East Midlands | 8 | South East | 15 |
Eastern | 9 | South West | 8 |
London | 8 | Wales | 6 |
North East | 3 | West Midlands | 8 |
North West | 11 | Yorkshire and the Humber | 10 |
Scotland | 14 |
It should be noted that railway track in each region is utilised to different intensities. For example in 2015/16 there were 537,369 thousand rail passenger journeys within the London region which was almost six times more journeys than within the North West region.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many miles of railway track were electrified in each region of England and Wales in each year since 2010.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Office of Rail and Road publish railway infrastructure statistics, which contain the length of electrified route in Great Britain (including Scotland). The table below gives total electrified route length from 2009-10 to 2015-16.
Network Rail manage the infrastructure, but they geographically organise the network by ‘Routes’ rather than by region, therefore this information is not available by region.
Route and Track Miles of the rail network in Great Britain. Source: ORR
Year | Route miles electrified |
2009-10 | 3,256 |
2010-11 | 3,270 |
2011-12 | 3,270 |
2012-13 | 3,272 |
2013-14 | 3,274 |
2014-15 | 3,277 |
2015-16* | 3,313 |
*Provisional.
The above table shows that 57 route miles were electrified between 2009-10 and 2015-16.
However, the figures above just show completed electrification works and so do not take account of the many more route miles which are in the process of being electrified. Various schemes ongoing across the country include:
o The 120 mile Great Western Main Line route between London and Cardiff (of which the 12 mile section from West Drayton to Maidenhead was recently turned on)
o 49 mile route from Blackpool North to Manchester Piccadilly
o Just under 17 miles route from Walsall to Rugeley Trent Valley-
o 13 mile route from Gospel Oak to Barking
o Just over 4 miles at Bromsgrove-
o 1 mile at the Orsdall Chord
All of the above is much more than the 10 miles electrified by Labour in 13 years.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which planned rail electrification projects have been cancelled in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Paul Maynard
In the last seven years we have electrified more than 50 route miles and many more route miles are in the process of being electrified. This is much more than the 10 miles electrified by Labour in 13 years.
As my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State said on 20 July, however, technology is advancing quickly, and this means that we no longer need to electrify every line to achieve the same significant improvements to journeys.
Details on the sections of railway line where electrification is no longer considered necessary are contained in my Rt Hon Friend’s statement of 20 July.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department received from Arriva Trains Wales in rebates in each year since that franchise has been in operation.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Since 2009/10 the Department has received annual rebates from Arriva Train Wales.
Following a Control Period 4 adjustment for track access charges, payments of approximately £30 million per annum were made to the Department between 2009/10 and 2013/14 inclusive.
A further Control Period 5 adjustment for track access charges led to rebates of approximately £60m in 2014/15, £68m in 2015/16 and £70m in 2016/17.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average savings in travel time were from each rail electrification project in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Paul Maynard
No time has been saved by the electrification alone. Some of the routes have had major route upgrades, including line speed improvements, which has benefitted diesel trains as well as electric ones.
The core purpose of electrification is not normally for speed Examples of this are between London and Edinburgh, where diesel and electric trains are scheduled in the same journey time.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on (a) television advertising, (b) radio advertising, (c) national newspaper advertisements, (d) local newspaper advertisements, (e) social media advertising and (f) other types of advertising in each year since 2010.
Answered by Claire Perry
I refer the hon Member to the answer given by my Rt Hon Friend, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Hon Member for Horsham (Francis Maude) on 17 March 2015 to Question UIN 227295