Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) procedures and (b) regulations his Department has put in place to ensure the (i) welfare and (ii) safety of passengers held on trains for long periods of time; whether those procedures and regulations were adhered to by (A) Network Rail and (B) Southeastern Rail on 2 March 2018 in respect of passengers held on trains for over four hours outside Lewisham Station; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Southeastern are appointing an independent investigator to lead a full review of the incident which will establish if correct procedures and regulations have been adhered to. This will be shared with my Department.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how long passengers were held on trains outside Lewisham Station after the electricity supply was turned off on Friday 2 March; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Network Rail turned the power off to ensure the safety of people who had self-evacuated from delayed trains. The power was off for nearly 3 hours while railway staff and the emergency services worked to ensure that all tracks were clear, and the power could be safely restored.
During this time, a number of passengers on other trains also self-evacuated over a 2-mile long stretch of railway, which resulted in longer delays than might have otherwise been the case.
Southeastern are appointing an independent investigator to lead a full review of the incident to identify lessons learnt which will include the management of incidents when trains become stranded between stations.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on when a risk assessment of passengers self-evacuating from the trains stranded outside Lewisham Station on 2 March 2018 was undertaken; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Southeastern and Network Rail have jointly announced an independently-chaired investigation to carry out a full review of this incident. The findings will be used to improve the management of such incidents in the future. These lessons, will be shared across the whole rail sector. This will include how Southeastern responded to the reports of passenger self-evacuating.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on steps taken by (a) Southeastern Trains and (b) Network Rail to stop trains becoming caught behind the broken down train outside of Lewisham Station on 2 March 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Southeastern and Network Rail have jointly announced an independently-chaired investigation to carry out a full review of this incident. The findings will be used to improve the management of such incidents in the future. These lessons, will be shared across the whole rail sector.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the total cost of the Thameslink project at London Bridge; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The estimated total cost for Thameslink Programme London Bridge Station infrastructure works including civils works and associated Railway Systems is £1.6 billion.
Of this total cost, the cost of the railway systems work, including track and signalling at London Bridge station and on its approaches, was £508 million at January 2018.
The overall package has delivered major capacity enhancements, and, with 24 Thameslink trains per hour being able to run at peak times through the central London core from 2019, the station concourse now has two-thirds more space for passengers and it will have the ability to cope with 96 million passengers per year, up from the 54 million today.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much money from the public purse has been spent on the Thameslink project to improve the infrastructure to all rail lines that run (a) into and (b) out of London Bridge Station; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The estimated total cost for Thameslink Programme London Bridge Station infrastructure works including civils works and associated Railway Systems is £1.6 billion.
Of this total cost, the cost of the railway systems work, including track and signalling at London Bridge station and on its approaches, was £508 million at January 2018.
The overall package has delivered major capacity enhancements, and, with 24 Thameslink trains per hour being able to run at peak times through the central London core from 2019, the station concourse now has two-thirds more space for passengers and it will have the ability to cope with 96 million passengers per year, up from the 54 million today.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential improvement the performance of Southeastern rail services on completion of the Thameslink project at London Bridge Station; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Thameslink Programme investment around London Bridge station includes new infrastructure, track and signalling equipment to untangle the tracks. This will provide more capacity through London Bridge station and make train services more resilient.
The new timetable being implemented from May 2018 will take advantage of this investment and will benefit passengers across the south east including on the Thameslink, Southern and Southeastern networks.
Network Rail is currently undertaking a review of performance for the new South Eastern franchise.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer of 12 December 2017 to Question 118257 and with reference to page 34, paragraph 17 of paper South East Rail Franchise Stakeholder Briefing Document: Shaping the Future, if he will publish the supporting evidence that delays caused to Southeast Rail Services are as a result of trains changing lines at crossovers north of Lewisham station; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Delays to train services on the South Eastern Franchise are grouped into two categories:
On the South Eastern Franchise suburban network 77% of all delays at peak times between the 1st of April 2015 and the 31st of March 2016 were caused by knock-on delays from one train to another. Of these delays, 9.3% are recorded as having occurred at Lewisham station, or at the crossovers in the immediate vicinity. Only North Kent Junction, between New Cross and London Bridge, recorded higher delays on the peak suburban services outside the London termini.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 35 of the paper, South East Rail Franchise Stakeholder Document what proportion of people from the Metro area (a) opposed reducing the choice of London destinations (b) wanted to retain services to (i) Charing Cross, (ii) Cannon Street and (iii) Victoria; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Invitation to Tender (ITT) sets out the minimum requirements of the next franchise. The priority of the ITT is to improve the reliability of services across the network including the Metro area.
93.6% of people in the Metro area (who responded to the consultation and also provided their postcode) were opposed or strongly opposed to reducing the choice of central London destinations from individual stations to enable the simplicity of a regular service to a single London terminal throughout the day to benefit both regular and occasional passengers.
Category | Metro Only |
Strongly Oppose | 88.5% |
Oppose | 5.1% |
Neutral | 2.3% |
Support | 1.9% |
Strongly Support | 1.1% |
- | 1.1% |
|
|
Respondents with postcodes | 7,212 |
% of total | 67.8% |
Since the consultation did not ask which terminals respondents wished to retain services to, we are unable to state what proportion of respondents wished to maintain services to each specific London terminal.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the page 34, paragraph 17 of the paper South East Rail Franchise Stakeholder Briefing Document Shaping the Future, what proportion of delays to South East trains at crossover points were caused by Bexleyheath Line services travelling (a) to and (b) from Victoria Station in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not hold the information requested broken down into the level of detail required and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.