Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2020 to Question 63308 on roads: noise, what assessment his Department has made of the potential deployment of noise cameras in rural environments which do not have complex traffic and environmental scenarios.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Department recognises that simpler traffic scenarios and road layouts can be found in rural environments but there are still difficulties in measuring vehicle noise in an uncontrolled environment.
Before the acoustic camera can be recommended for wider use, we will need to establish confidence that the camera can detect excessive noise offences to avoid penalising law-abiding motorists and motorcyclists. This will require further development of the instrument.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the results were from his Department's trials of roadside noise cameras in Hampshire and elsewhere; and what plans he has for the further deployment of such cameras.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The acoustic camera trial is complete and preliminary indications are that the device can identify individual vehicles in certain circumstances and assign noise levels to them, but further development is needed to improve accuracy.
The technology has the potential to identify excessively noisy vehicles; however, there are still difficulties in measuring noise in an uncontrolled environment to be overcome. As a result, further development and testing will be required before it could be recommended for wider scale roll out, especially if the camera is to be deployed in urban environments where complex traffic and environmental scenarios are common.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support his Department is providing to the development of hydrogen-powered transport.
Answered by George Freeman
Government is committed to exploring the development of hydrogen as a strategic decarbonised energy carrier, which has potential to support the UK’s efforts to decarbonise transport and meet the 2050 net zero target. The UK is well placed to be a leader in hydrogen and fuel cell powered transportation due to our high-quality engineering and manufacturing capability in relevant supply chains. We are supporting innovation in the hydrogen supply chain from production to end use and investigating potential synergies between transport and other sectors.
In road transport, hydrogen is eligible for support under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation following changes made to the scheme in April 2018. The Office for Low Emission Vehicles and the Advanced Propulsion Centre are funding a wide range of development projects in hydrogen vehicles across technology readiness levels. We are also supporting the technology through the £23m Hydrogen for Transport programme and £2m FCEV fleet support scheme. In addition, the Clean Maritime Plan recognised hydrogen as one of a number of the key fuels on a pathway to zero-emission shipping
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the capacity relief created at Waterloo station from the proposed crossrail 2 project.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Crossrail 2 could provide transformational uplifts in capacity, connectivity, and quality of life for those travelling into and across London from the South West Main Line (SWML). The scheme could help to ease pressure at Waterloo, potentially reducing national rail arrivals by more than 15% across the three-hour weekday morning peak.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what change in the number of passenger miles travelled there has been in the South Western Trains/South Western Railway franchise area in the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes data on the number of rail passenger kilometres by train operator, which has been converted to miles and presented in the table below.
Table 1: Passenger miles on South Western Railway (billions), 2008-09 to 2018-19
Financial year | South Western Railways passenger miles (billions) | Annual Percentage change |
2008-09 | 3.32 |
|
2009-10 | 3.28 | -1.2% |
2010-11 | 3.43 | 4.6% |
2011-12 | 3.55 | 3.5% |
2012-13 | 3.59 | 1.1% |
2013-14 | 3.76 | 4.7% |
2014-15 | 3.87 | 2.9% |
2015-16 | 3.98 | 2.8% |
2016-17 | 3.98 | 0.0% |
2017-18 | 3.69 | -7.3% |
2018-19 | 3.75 | 1.6% |
Passenger kilometres by train operator from 2011-12 are available in Table 12.11 at the following link:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/passenger-rail-usage/
Historic data prior to 2011-12 is available in the ORR’s archived publications at the following link:
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what change in passenger capacity there has been at Waterloo station in the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Waterloo Capacity Enhancement programme has lengthened suburban platforms to accommodate 10-car length trains and provide an additional five platforms at Waterloo by bringing the former International Terminal platforms back into regular use. This has enabled an increase in seat capacity on trains at Waterloo.
The Department for Transport (DfT) publishes data on seat capacity on central London arrivals and departures by rail on a typical autumn weekday. This data was first published for 2011 and the latest published data is for 2018, as presented in the table below.
Table 1: Total seats available on a typical autumn weekday at Vauxhall (for Waterloo) 2011 to 2018
Year | Total seats | Percentage change from previous year |
2011 | 700,825 |
|
2012 | 707,218 | 0.9% |
2013 | 707,138 | 0.0% |
2014 | 717,848 | 1.5% |
2015 | 723,407 | 0.8% |
2016 | 736,370 | 1.8% |
2017 | 737,791 | 0.2% |
2018 | 809,166 | 9.7% |
Notes:
Where a city has more than one station in the city centre along the same route, the seating capacity into the city centre is counted on arrival at the first city centre station the train called at, and the seating capacity departing from the city centre is counted on departure from the final city centre station the train called at. The seating capacity for London Waterloo trains will therefore be the total seating capacity at Vauxhall.
For the production of DfT’s rail crowding statistics, some peak trains are also given a standing allowance to reflect additional standing capacity for shorter journeys. Standing capacity has not been included in the table above.
Train capacity (total seats) for central London arrivals and departures by rail on a typical autumn weekday by station and timeband are available in Table RAI0203 at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/rai02-capacity-and-overcrowding
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has allocated to the South Western Trains/South Western Railways franchise area in the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Between 2008/09 and 2017/18 the department received net funding of £280m from the South West Trains/South Western Railway franchise area. This included £2.3bn in Network Rail grants offset by £2.6bn Premium payments to the Department. ORR data for 2018/19 have yet to be published.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) monitoring and (b) analysis his Department undertakes of the average (i) capital cost, (ii) running cost and (iii) whole-life cost of electric vehicles relative to (A) petrol and (B) diesel vehicles for different (1) categories of vehicle and (2) groups of users.
Answered by George Freeman
The department procures data and analysis from external consultants, which allows us to assess current and potential future capital costs, running costs, and the whole life cost or ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ (TCO) for different categories of electric, diesel and petrol vehicles. We monitor for similar analysis produced by external parties to verify our understanding of how TCO, and the economic case for owning an ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV), is expected to evolve over time. When deemed necessary, we commission updates or revisions to the data and analysis. At the moment the Department does not conduct this analysis for individual consumer groups.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data are available on levels of road noise along the A3 between the Hindhead tunnel and Queen Elizabeth country park (a) prior to and (b) since the opening of that tunnel.
Answered by George Freeman
Links to the DEFRA 2012 and 2017 strategic noise mapping data for estimated road noise for the A3 near Hindhead Tunnel and Queen Elizabeth country park are provided below. Once the postcode (GU26 6AP) is inserted into the Preview box the data will become live.
Maps were made using computer modelling techniques, based on information such as traffic flow data, road/rail type, and vehicle type data. No actual noise measurements were made in the production of the strategic maps. Therefore, mapping data – although useful - does not necessarily represent an exact picture of the situation on the ground at any given locality.
Following completion of the Hindhead Tunnel, Highways England published an evaluation of the performance of the scheme in 2017, which can be found here. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/782584/POPE_A3_Hindhead_FYA_Report.pdf.
The report indicates that the scheme is performing as expected or better than expected in terms of noise in most locations adjacent to the scheme.
There are 15 Noise Important Areas (NIA) along the A3 between the Hindhead Tunnel and A27. Since 2015, at 11 of these sites, Highways England has delivered noise pollution mitigation schemes. These improvement schemes include low noise resurfacing and providing insulation to affected properties.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data his Department holds on the proportion of (a) petrol and diesel and (b) electric (i) cars and (ii) other vehicles bought through (A) purchase, (B) financed purchase, (C) leasing arrangements and (D) other arrangements in each of the last three years.
Answered by George Freeman
The Department does not hold any information relating to methods by which vehicles are purchased.