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Written Question
Rolling Stock: Procurement
Tuesday 7th May 2024

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to help support train companies to (a) buy rather than lease trains and (b) purchase UK-made trains.

Answered by Huw Merriman

Rolling stock assets have an expected operational lifespan of between thirty to thirty-five years exceeding the duration of the operating contracts currently in place with train operators.

These long-term investments made by the rolling stock owners passes risk from the Government to the private sector. It also means that such capital does not need to be spent by the Government on rolling stock but can be invested elsewhere in infrastructure such as schools, prisons and roads.

Train manufacturing is a competitive, commercial market in which there can be no guarantee of orders to individual manufacturers. All contracts need to be assessed thoroughly to demonstrate a business need for the trains and comply with the law.

Written Question
Roads: Standards
Thursday 13th July 2023

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of road conditions.

Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport

The Department takes the condition of our roads very seriously, and is providing £5.5 billion of highways maintenance capital funding for English local highways authorities over this Parliament. It is also working with the British Standards Institute and the Transport Research Laboratory to develop a new standard for assessing road condition. This will help authorities identify, assess, and deal with road defects, including potholes.

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 01 Dec 2022
Rail Cancellations and Service Levels

"Another month, another urgent question to discuss how companies such as Avanti are taking not only our constituents, but all of us, for mugs. As I have mentioned to the Minister before, we keep on getting claims of progress and improvement, but we continue to reward failure. Just last week, …..."
Christian Wakeford - View Speech

View all Christian Wakeford (Lab - Bury South) contributions to the debate on: Rail Cancellations and Service Levels
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 25 Oct 2022
Avanti West Coast Contract Renewal

"Two weeks ago, I told Avanti in the Select Committee that every train I had booked in the past month had been cancelled. Avanti told me that there had been improvements. Improvements appear to be moving about as fast as the 8.55 from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston—that train was …..."
Christian Wakeford - View Speech

View all Christian Wakeford (Lab - Bury South) contributions to the debate on: Avanti West Coast Contract Renewal
Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 21 Mar 2022
P&O Ferries and Employment Rights

"I was a supporter of my hon. Friend’s Bill when he brought it forward, despite being on the Conservative Benches at the time, and I even shared a platform with him at the party conference. We heard from the Secretary of State earlier that ACAS would be bringing forward further …..."
Christian Wakeford - View Speech

View all Christian Wakeford (Lab - Bury South) contributions to the debate on: P&O Ferries and Employment Rights
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 26 May 2021
Driverless Cars

"Being a keen follower of my hon. Friend, I have seen many of his tweets and followed many of his speeches—we all know too well the fears of judgment day. Seeing the robots on the streets of Milton Keynes actually being fed by children, how do we know that the …..."
Christian Wakeford - View Speech

View all Christian Wakeford (Lab - Bury South) contributions to the debate on: Driverless Cars
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 26 May 2021
Driverless Cars

"My hon. Friend is being very kind in giving way, but I will correct him because in AXA’s figures 90% of road traffic accidents were caused by driver error. When we also factor in figures regarding drug and alcohol impairment, as well as the impact on pedestrians, this could be …..."
Christian Wakeford - View Speech

View all Christian Wakeford (Lab - Bury South) contributions to the debate on: Driverless Cars
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 26 May 2021
Driverless Cars

"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq.

While we are talking about the names of our cars, let me say that I have not named mine KITT; being a fan of “Star Wars”, I have named it the Falcon. Members have talked about the programmes they …..."
Christian Wakeford - View Speech

View all Christian Wakeford (Lab - Bury South) contributions to the debate on: Driverless Cars
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 26 May 2021
Driverless Cars

"My hon. Friend has mentioned building back better. This entire innovation is about building back greener and fairer to allow more people to get back into employment. He mentioned mobility issues in his opening remark—being able to get people back into adult education, higher education and employment, and helping them …..."
Christian Wakeford - View Speech

View all Christian Wakeford (Lab - Bury South) contributions to the debate on: Driverless Cars
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 26 May 2021
Driverless Cars

"We have talked about the improvement of the economy thanks to driverless vehicles but, with the introduction of the super deduction and freeports, what does the Minister think the impact on manufacturing will be?..."
Christian Wakeford - View Speech

View all Christian Wakeford (Lab - Bury South) contributions to the debate on: Driverless Cars