Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will review the adequacy of processes for the changeover of the Dartford Crossing payment system providers.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Yes. Whilst the service is working well now, a number of users experienced unsatisfactory delays. National Highways will consider carefully similar processes in future.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Mayor of London has access to DVLA records for the implementation and enforcement of the expansion of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) provides information about UK-registered vehicles to Transport for London in line with the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (England) Regulations 2002. The release of DVLA information for this purpose is governed by Regulation 27 of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2002.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to support the development of hydrogen transport technology.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Many of the Department’s research, development, and demonstration funding programmes support the development of hydrogen for transport. This includes the £206 million UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions, the £165 million Advanced Fuels Fund as part of the Jet Zero programme, the pioneering £212 million Zero Emission Road Freight Demonstrator, and the £7.6 million First of a Kind fund in rail.
The Department’s investment of £23 million to a dedicated Hydrogen Transport Hub on Tees Valley will be used to explore how hydrogen works across transport in conjunction with regions energy system and local businesses. The Government is also supporting the development of skills and announced funding to enable this, working with the Tees Valley Combined Authority to upskill the local workforce.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) international counterparts on the viability of establishing covid-tested, resort based package holidays with British holiday companies.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
We are committed to tackling this virus while enabling a sustainable and responsible return to international travel, and keep our approach to border measures under regular review to ensure that they remain effective and practical. To that effect, the Transport Secretary discusses a range of topics relating to COVID-19 with Cabinet colleagues and international counterparts.
On 7 October 2020, the Government announced the new Global Travel Taskforce, to support the travel industry and support the safe recovery of international travel. The Taskforce will accelerate work to inform proposals on a future testing regime, and develop options for how this could be introduced.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of removing the Dartford toll charges for owners of wholly electric vehicles.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Dartford Thurrock Crossing was designed to handle up to 135,000 vehicle movements each day, but it is not uncommon for over 180,000 vehicles to use the Crossing.
The Dartford Road User Charge was introduced in 2003 to manage user demand which currently exceeds the capacity of the Crossing. Given that low or zero emission vehicles also use scarce road capacity, there is a rationale for continuing to charge them to use the Crossing. The Department currently has no plans to remove charges for owners of wholly electric vehicles using the Crossing.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of unofficial Dartcharge websites.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Dart Charge estimates that there are at least nine unofficial web sites in operation. This is subject to change as websites are added, removed, changed or temporarily unavailable.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of passenger numbers using Ebbsfleet station.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Office of Rail and Road publishes annual Estimates of Station Usage, which provides the total number of entries & exits and interchanges for each station on Great Britain’s national rail network.
The latest publication for 2017-18 shows that there were estimated to be 1,961,528 entries & exits and 57,476 interchanges at Ebbsfleet International. This does not include passengers using the Eurostar services.
The full publication including more historic data can be found at:
https://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/station-usage-estimates
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of future passenger numbers on Southeastern services to and from Ebbsfleet station.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Office of Rail and Road provides estimates of current passenger numbers including Ebbsfleet and these are available from the ORR website. The Department for Transport publishes guidance on forecasting demand growth in the future for stations on the network. This guidance is called ‘WebTAG’ and can be found on the Department’s website.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to make an announcement on the award of the new Southeastern franchise.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The bids for the next franchise continue to be evaluated. My Department wants to ensure that the franchise meets the needs of passengers and taxpayers and will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the number of vehicles using the Dartford Crossing; and to what extent that crossing is (a) meeting and (b) exceeding its operational capacity.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The performance of the Dartford Crossing is continually monitored. The design capacity of the Crossing is 135,000 vehicles per day. The average number of vehicles that used the Dartford Crossing per day in 2017 was 156,978.