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Written Question
Railway Stations: Access
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Access for All programme; whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of reinstating that programme.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

The Department continues to support and fund the Access for All programme. Since its inception in 2006, the programme has installed around £900m worth of accessible, step free routes at over 200 stations plus a range of smaller scale access improvements at around 1500 stations, across Britain. We are currently assessing over 300 station nominations in anticipation of a further round of funding beyond 2024.


Written Question
Airports: Disability
Monday 6th February 2023

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help improve (a) the timeliness of notification to airports by airlines and travel agents of passengers requiring assistance and (b) accessibility at airports.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Government works closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK’s specialist aviation regulator, who are responsible for enforcing consumer laws, including Regulation 1107/2006 (as retained in UK law). This sets out the requirements for capturing and sharing information on assistance requests.

The CAA collect annual data on airport accessibility services, including pre-notification by airports and airlines, and will take enforcement action against individual carriers as required.

The CAA recently published an interim report on the performance of airports against its accessibility framework. The report highlighted airports requiring further improvement, and airports performing well.

The CAA will continue to monitor and work with airports to implement improvements and publish its usual annual report later this year. In addition, it will soon publish a consultation on airline accessibility which will include guidance on airlines’ obligations regarding pre-notification, amongst other requirements, and seek to assess airlines against publicly available criteria.


Written Question
Airports: Disability
Monday 6th February 2023

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of passengers requiring assistance pre-notified to airports by airlines and travel agents.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Government works closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK’s specialist aviation regulator, who are responsible for enforcing consumer laws, including Regulation 1107/2006 (as retained in UK law). This sets out the requirements for capturing and sharing information on assistance requests.

The CAA collect annual data on airport accessibility services, including pre-notification by airports and airlines, and will take enforcement action against individual carriers as required.

The CAA recently published an interim report on the performance of airports against its accessibility framework. The report highlighted airports requiring further improvement, and airports performing well.

The CAA will continue to monitor and work with airports to implement improvements and publish its usual annual report later this year. In addition, it will soon publish a consultation on airline accessibility which will include guidance on airlines’ obligations regarding pre-notification, amongst other requirements, and seek to assess airlines against publicly available criteria.


Written Question
Govia Thameslink Railway
Thursday 24th November 2022

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate has she made of the savings to the public purse caused by reduction in GTR services in London coach numbers and frequency made in 2022.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

The changes that Govia Thameslink Railway implemented in 2022 increased the number of services that ran. Therefore there were no associated cost savings.


Written Question
Govia Thameslink Railway
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to model the impact of service reductions from GTR; and what modelling his Department has received from GTR on the planned service reductions.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

GTR have been working at pace to respond to changing passenger travel patterns since the pandemic. Their train service is regularly reviewed to ensure it provides sufficient capacity to meet passenger demand whilst delivering good value for the taxpayer.


Written Question
Govia Thameslink Railway
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of (a) passenger numbers during (i) peak and (ii) off-peak hours on Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) services in London and (b) fare revenue collected by GTR for those services in the most recent period for which data are available.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

For the most recent rail period, the number of weekday journeys on GTR totalled 76 per cent of pre pandemic levels whilst weekend journeys were 86 per cent. Peak travel has recovered much more slowly than off peak. Overall revenue for GTR reached 76 per cent compared to 2019 levels.


Written Question
Southeastern: Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements
Wednesday 19th October 2022

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date in 2021 her Department approved the payment of a £30,000,000 dividend by London and Southeastern Railways Ltd under the terms of its Emergency Measures Agreement.

Answered by Kevin Foster

London and South Eastern Railway Limited (LSER) were within the contractual financial ratios and the Department was not required to give approval to allow it to make the dividend payment.

The dividend payment was therefore a matter for LSER and its owning group.


Written Question
Railways: Greater London
Tuesday 18th October 2022

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to Answer of 14 September 2022 to Question 45030 on Railways: Greater London, what recent discussions her Department has had with Govia Thameslink on reductions in service.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Department meets regularly with Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and will continue to carefully monitor implementation of GTR’s recent and future timetable alterations as well as changes in demand to identify where further interventions in service level provision may be required.

GTR are making evidence-based timetable interventions to better optimise service levels to balance capacity and demand.


Written Question
Railways: Greater London
Tuesday 18th October 2022

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to Answer of 14 September 2022 to Question 45030 on Railways: Greater London, what steps her Department is taking to monitor the potential impact of reductions in rail (a) services and (b) capacity on the use of private vehicles in London.

Answered by Kevin Foster

We are not monitoring the impact of changes in rail services on car usage, however, we are focussed on ensuring Govia Thameslink Railway are making evidence-based timetable interventions to better optimise service levels to balance capacity and demand.


Written Question
Railways: Greater London
Thursday 15th September 2022

Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in the context of the proposed reduction in rail service frequency and carriage numbers in London, what estimate his Department has made of the potential impact of that proposal on rail (a) passenger numbers and (b) revenue.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Department has issued all operators with a demand forecast model to track returning demand against forecasts to better match train services to demand.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), who introduced its latest timetable change on Sunday 4 September 2022, has used this model to ensure demand is best met given the funding available for services across its network.

At present, GTR’s operating costs are outstripping revenue. Across the GTR network, demand for services is between 60 to 75 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels resulting in a significant deficit in the operators’ cost base of several hundred million pounds each year at the current level of service provision.

All services are kept under review, and, where appropriate, adjusted to reflect fluctuations in demand by changing the frequency of services or length of trains. The Department will work with GTR to consider what further action is needed where evidence supports the (re)introduction of services or longer trains.