Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of rail passenger numbers in the North West in each of the last 20 years.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Office of Rail and Road publishes annual statistics on regional rail usage. The number of rail journeys made to/from and within the North West region in each of the last 20 years is presented below.
Rail journeys to, from and within the North West: from 1997-98
| Total Journeys (thousands) |
1997-98 | 49,199 |
1998-99 | 50,009 |
1999-00 | 52,882 |
2000-01 | 51,924 |
2001-02 | 51,730 |
2002-03 | 51,022 |
2003-04 | 55,503 |
2004-05 | 58,678 |
2005-06 | 64,044 |
2006-07 | 67,167 |
2007-08 | 71,663 |
2008-09 (*) | 105,819 |
2009-10 | 106,098 |
2010-11 | 111,556 |
2011-12 | 115,182 |
2012-13 | 113,921 |
2013-14 | 121,741 |
2014-15 | 124,878 |
2015-16 | 128,005 |
2016-17 | 133,966 |
2017-18 | 134,420 |
Source: Office of Rail and Road
(*) Methodological changes have improved these statistics over time. Most notably from 2008-09, new estimates of rail travel in passenger transport executives (PTEs) areas were included in the dataset for the first time, providing a more complete representation of rail passenger journeys.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has allocated to St Helens Council to repair potholes in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
St Helens Council is a constituent member of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Since 2015 highway maintenance block funding has been paid directly to Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
The funding provided by the Department for Transport for highway maintenance, including pothole repair, to St Helens Council since 2010 is shown in the table attached.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2018 to Question 146923 on M6, whether transport infrastructure improvements to Junction 23 of the M6 Motorway is planned to be included in the Road investment Strategy 2 to be delivered between 2020-2025.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Department plans to publish an investment plan for the second road investment strategy in 2019.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many trains scheduled to stop at (a) Garswood station, (b) Newton-le-Willows station and (c) Earlestown station have been cancelled as part of Northern’s recently imposed emergency timetable; and which of those cancelled services were replaced with a rail replacement bus service.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Services at Earlestown and Newton-le-Willows are currently running an amended timetable due to planned engineering works. There are no cancellations directly attributed to the 4th June emergency timetable.
Garswood still has a twice per hour service in each direction but there is a rail replacement bus service from Huyton currently, due to planned engineering works into Liverpool.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many trains scheduled to stop at Rainford station have been cancelled as part of Northern’s recently imposed emergency timetable; which of those cancelled services were replaced with a rail replacement bus service; and whether it is his Department’s policy that a rail replacement bus service should charge the same fare as the service it is replacing.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The 4th June emergency timetable has reduced Rainford’s Mon-Sat train numbers from 18 in each direction to 15.
How many cancelled services have been replaced by a bus is an operational matter for Northern.
It is established practice in the rail industry that the same fares are charged when rail replacement bus services are in use.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential (a) employment and (b) economic benefits of transport infrastructure improvements to Junction 23 of the M6 Motorway.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
£4.1m was invested to improve this junction in 2015, and the M6 through it will be upgraded at this point to smart motorway standard under the current road investment strategy. Highways England’s London to Scotland West route strategy identified this junction as a “potential future pinch point where congestion could inhibit future economic growth” and Highways England will revisit this assessment when it next reviews its route strategies.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the proportion of trains from (a) Earlestown, (bi) Newton-le-willows and (c) Garswood which were (i) delayed and (ii) cancelled in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Northern franchise is due for renewal on 1st April 2025.
The Wales & Borders franchise is due for renewal on 14th October 2018. The procurement of a new operator for the franchise is being led by the Welsh Government.
The department does not hold this information, as it is not the custodian of detailed performance data for the industry, and we do not require that level of detail on a day-to-day basis to manage the franchise performance regimes.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the (a) Welsh Government and (b) Mayor of Liverpool City Region on the Arriva Trains Wales service from Holyhead and Llandudno to Manchester stations.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
There have been no specific recent discussions with either the Welsh Government or the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region regarding the Arriva Train Wales service from Holyhead and Llandudno to Manchester stations. Discussions did take place last year between the Department and the Welsh Government on the specification of the future services on these routes in the next franchise in respect of their operation within England.