Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to assist London Midland in tackling fare evasion on the West Coast Mainline.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department funded a ticketless travel survey in Summer 2015 that highlighted to London Midland where there is lost revenue across their network. London Midland are obliged to maximise revenue in the franchise and it is in their interests to reduce ticketless travel. The public consultation that closed in February 2016 for the new West Midlands franchise asked for views on how ticketless travel can be improved for the next franchise that is due to commence in October 2017.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the performance of those train companies that scored low marks in the Office of Rail and Road's mystery shopping exercise on delay compensation, reported on in March 2016.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department is already working closely with the ORR and the Association of Train Operating Companies to bring about improvements to passenger compensation arrangements.
The Department will consider the results of the mystery shopping as part of its response to the ORR’s report into the Which? super-complaint in the summer of 2016.
I also understand the ORR has followed up the results of the mystery shopping exercise with each Train Operating Company. It intends to assess the level of improvement by carrying out a further survey in due course, as set out in its March 2016 report. The ORR will publish the mystery shopper results alongside its first annual report on consumers, titled ‘Measuring Up’, shortly.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Office of Rail and Road super-complaint response report, published in March 2016, paragraph 207, which three train operating companies scored 0 per cent for their sampled mystery shops.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department does not have this information. We understand the Office of Rail and Road intends to publish the results of this work, alongside its first annual report on consumers titled ‘Measuring Up’, shortly.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to encourage transport operators to provide services that are accessible to disabled people.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department for Transport is committed to building transport networks which work for everyone, ensuring that disabled people have the same access to transport services as non-disabled members of society
Compliance with bus accessibility Regulations was 89% in England in 2015; while 60% of rail vehicles, up from 46% in 2013, were built or fully refurbished to modern access standards.
By the end of this year Access for All will have completed more than 150 step-free routes at rail stations against a target of 125. More than 1,200 stations have received smaller scale improvements. To build on this success £160m has been allocated to another 68 stations to be delivered by 2019.
We plan to require that taxi and private hire vehicle drivers provide assistance to wheelchair users and refrain from charging extra by commencing sections 165 and 167 of the Equality Act 2010 by the end of the year.
The Department works closely with its statutory advisors on the needs of disabled people, the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee, such as on a project to develop best practice guidance on the delivery of disability awareness training for bus and coach drivers.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage car manufacturers to adopt green and hybrid technologies.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The UK offers one of the most comprehensive packages of support for ultra low emission vehicles in the world. This includes the plug-in car and van grants, support for infrastructure, investment in R&D, and the ground breaking government-industry communications campaign, ‘Go Ultra Low’.
The government recently committed over £600m over the course of this parliament to support the take up and manufacture of ultra low emission vehicles, and has set itself the ambitious goal that by 2050 nearly all cars and vans should be zero emission.
We are also active in the EU in pushing for ambitious regulation of the CO2 emissions of new cars, which will encourage the increasing deployment of new greener technologies.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that users of the rail network are aware of the compensation schemes available to them when their trains are delayed or cancelled.
Answered by Claire Perry
I welcome the publication of the Office of Rail and Road's (ORR’s) recommendations in March this year following Which?'s super-complaint into passenger compensation. It is vital that customers who suffer delays or cancellations understand their rights to compensation and have access to it in a timely way. Industry must now do much more to make the process quick and user-friendly. We are already working with the Association of Train Operating Companies and the ORR to bring about improvements, and my Department will respond to the ORR’s report in the summer of 2016.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to limit the effect that engineering works on rail lines have on travel over long bank holidays.
Answered by Claire Perry
An independent review of how the rail industry plans and schedules major improvement work was carried out last year. The review concluded that Christmas, Easter and bank holidays were the best times to carry out upgrades requiring major line closures, particularly in and around London where the network is busiest and access for engineers is most difficult.
Network Rail always looks to minimise the overall impact of these vital projects on passengers. As such, Network Rail and train operators are conscious that many people want to use the railway over holiday periods to reunite with their friends and families, so where possible they try to ensure the vast majority of services are kept running, as well as delivering passenger improvements on time. Network Rail will ensure around 96% of the network will be available during the next May bank holiday.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what improvements will be introduced on the West Coast Main Line after High Speed 2 comes into operation.
Answered by Claire Perry
Network Rail leads the industry long term planning process, and works with the Department for Transport, local transport authorities and operators to identify and consider future options for capacity improvement across the rail network as a whole.
Work is currently underway to consider how to manage and make best use of capacity on the West Coast Main Line once services on the first phase of HS2 are scheduled to start operating in 2026/27. This will include consideration of how any released capacity on the West Coast Main Line might be best used to serve places on the “classic” network.
In due course, the government will consider the options that are identified by this work. These options will feed into the government’s decisions on rail investment for the periods 2019-2024 and beyond, taking into account the recommendations of the Hendy, Bowe and Shaw reports.