Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department was involved in the decision of LNER to introduce its Simpler Fares pilot scheme, as announced on 16 January 2024.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department has supported London North Eastern Railway (LNER) to introduce its two-year long trial and we will carefully consider the results.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the amount of additional rail capacity which will be available at the end of Network Rail’s Control Period 7 funding settlement between 2024 and 2029.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State was clear in the 2022 High-Level Output Specification that he expects to see an efficient approach to system operation in Control Period 7 (CP7), underpinning allocation of capacity that best supports reliability, informed timetable specification and effective use of the network for rail freight—bolstered by the continued adoption of digital signalling.
Network Rail plans to support passenger train growth on major routes in the next Control Period, expected to be around 1% to 5% by the end of CP7. Across the whole network, operators will continue to be obliged to release any unused capacity to ensure that it can be appropriately allocated.
Network Rail plans support a further 25 rail freight trains per day in CP7, in pursuit of growing rail freight by 7.5% during Control Period 7. The independent regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, will hold Network Rail to account against this growth target.
We continue to support ambitious rail infrastructure upgrades (“enhancements”) across the country which will increase capacity across the rail network. Rail enhancements are funded and managed separately from the Control Period settlements.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the rail industry’s plans to review Ebbsfleet tunnel flooding that occurred on 29 December 2023.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
An investigation is being undertaken by an independent party to determine the cause of the flooding of the Thames Tunnels. The investigation is ongoing and the Department is in regular contact with the relevant parties including HS1 Ltd.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department held discussions with the rail industry before the publication of Network North.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Ministers and officials engage regularly with the rail industry, including Network Rail, train operating companies and representative bodies.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps is he taking to improve rail services at (a) Horden and (b) Seaham.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department, through the Rail North Partnership, will continue to work with train operators and stakeholders to assess potential improvements to train services to Horden and Seaham. Any additional services must take into account network constraints on the Durham Coast Line and be justified by passenger demand, as well as affordable within operators’ existing business plans and budgets.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he provided consent for Great Western Railway to agree a contract extension with Hitachi for maintenance of Class 802 Intercity Express Trains until 2028.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The consent for the contract extension with Hitachi for maintenance of Class 802 IETs was provided to Great Western Railway in March 2023.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2023 to Question 4396 on West Midlands Trains: Rolling Stock, how much funding his Department plans to provide through the West Midlands Trains National Rail Contract for depot and stabling facilities for the Class 730 train fleet.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department continues to work closely with West Midlands Trains on new and additional depot and stabling facilities for the Class 730 train fleet. As these projects are live and the size of the final programme is still being determined, the costs are not yet known, and funding options continue to be developed and should be finalised in 2024.
Overall, however, this will be a major investment in the region’s railways.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consent his Department provided for train operating companies to agree short-term lease options with rolling stock leasing companies in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Consent was provided to train operators to make short-term lease or sub-lease extensions with rolling stock owners or other operators on (a) 18 occasions in 2021, (b) 54 in 2022 and (c) 11 in 2023. These short-term extensions were mitigations for factors including late delivery of functioning new-build fleets from rolling stock manufacturers or delayed cascades of fleets from other operators.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department’s (a) process and (b) strategy is for procurement of rolling stock.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The procurement of rolling stock is led by train operating companies. Under the previous franchising process this may have formed part of a successful bid. However, under the new operating contract model, operators still lead on the procurement and specification process, but the final business case is subject to a governance review by the Department and HM Treasury. A number of train operators, including Chiltern, Northern, TransPennine and South Eastern, are currently undertaking procurements for new-build fleets, with a particular emphasis on replacing older fleets.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the decision to not close ticket offices on the budgets of train operators.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We are currently undertaking commercial negotiations with rail operators over their budgets and business plans for the next financial year and it would not be appropriate to provide further details on those negotiations.