Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of decreasing the time between the (a) announcement of countries being removed from the covid-19 green list for travel purposes and (b) enforcement of that rule.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The allocation of countries to the traffic light system will be reviewed every three weeks, unless there is a sudden change in the data and risk to a country that needs to be acted upon quickly. The next review will take place in the week commencing 21 June.
The timing between announcement and implementation of changes to country allocations under the traffic light system has been assessed to be appropriate in order to give travellers as much notice as possible whilst balancing the public health risk.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the proportion of road freight journeys made in vehicles powered by renewable energy.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Decarbonisation of the UK’s road freight sector will play a critical role in delivering on our climate ambitions. The Government is rewarding the supply of renewable fuels for use in road transport, including heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation scheme. We have also made funding available through multimillion-pound industry demonstration competitions, such as the Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition (the F4C), which support projects capable of producing low carbon waste-based fuels for use in aviation and HGVs.
The Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution announced that we are investing £20m this financial year in planning for zero emission road freight trials which will support UK industry to develop cost-effective, zero-emission HGVs and their refueling infrastructure in the UK. These trials will advance research and development in the technologies of catenary electric, battery electric and renewable hydrogen-powered HGVs, allowing us to begin the commercial roll-out of the appropriate new technologies before the end of the decade.
We will also be consulting on a date for phasing out the sale of new diesel HGVs to drive innovation and development and increase the uptake of zero emission alternatives within the HGV sector.
In November 2020, HM Treasury published the National Infrastructure Strategy. This confirmed that the £950m Rapid Charging Fund (RCF) was to be made available to future-proof electrical grid capacity at service areas on motorways and major A-roads. Whilst the RCF is currently targeting cars and vans, the additional electrical capacity will support charging infrastructure for zero emission HGVs. We are currently analysing the demand from zero-emission HGVs at Motorway Service Stations and considering how the infrastructure installed as part of the RCF can be used by zero emission HGVs in the future.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of journeys undertaken by bus in (a) Wakefield and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The National Bus Strategy, published on the 15 March, will deliver better bus services for passengers across England, through ambitious and far-reaching reform of how services are planned and delivered, to make local bus services more frequent, more reliable, easier to understand and use, better co-ordinated with simpler fares.
We expect Local Transport Authorities to produce Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) by the end of October 2021, setting out an ambitious vision for travel by bus in their area, meeting the goals and expectations in the strategy. BSIPs will influence the share of the £3 billion transformation funding that each authority receives.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of journeys undertaken by train in (a) Wakefield and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
We have just announced an investment of £317 million as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade which will boost punctuality, reliability and connectivity across West Yorkshire.
The region has the latest high-tech trains which stop at Wakefield, the city’s Westgate station has recently undergone a major £8.8 million rebuild, its Kirkgate station has been redeveloped and furthermore we are investing in two new stations for Leeds.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the proportion of freight trains powered by renewable energy sources.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
While rail freight is already a comparatively green mode of moving goods, we have been working alongside the rail industry to make it even greener.
In the last three years (for which data is available), we have completed almost 700 miles of electrification in England and Wales. As we deliver more electrification schemes in an efficient and affordable way, this will increase the opportunity for freight operating companies to use more electric and bi-mode locomotives, therefore using more renewable energy from the grid and from Network Rail’s renewable power purchase agreements.
Since 2019, the Department has contributed just under £750,000 to fund two First of a Kind projects that focus on the potential use of renewable new traction technologies (battery and hydrogen) to power freight trains, and over £2.5m to fund a project to enable renewable power sources to feed-in directly into the rail network. The Department also funds an ongoing programme of research, led by the Rail Safety and Standards Board, that includes reducing carbon and air quality emissions from rail freight.
We will be setting out further plans to support the decarbonisation of rail freight, and reduce the use of diesel, in the forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP).
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to lower the amount of carbon dioxide emitted as a result of transport in the UK.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Our Transport Decarbonisation Plan will set an ambitious pathway to end UK transport’s carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest and we intend to publish it shortly.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that train stations in (a) Wakefield and (b) West Yorkshire are fully equipped with tactile paving along platform edges.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
I have asked Network Rail to develop a programme to aim to install platform edge tactile strips on every platform in Great Britain.
I will make a further announcement in due course.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield and Hull.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed, as part of its Levelling Up agenda, to improving transport connectivity between the towns and cities of the North. Since 2009/10, £17.8 billion has been invested on railways, and £9.2 billion on national roads, in the north of England, including schemes on the M1 Junctions 39-42, M62 Junctions 25-30 and A63 Castle Street to benefit journeys on the strategic road network between Wakefield and Hull. The Government’s Integrated Rail Plan will set out how best to deliver and sequence Northern Powerhouse Rail, and other major rail projects such as HS2, so that the benefits of these investments are delivered to passengers and communities more quickly. The Government intends to publish the IRP this Spring.
We are also providing local authorities across the North of England access to the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, launched at the Budget 2021, which will enable places to bid for transport project funding that will enable them to continue to develop and progress their transport and connectivity ambitions.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield and Sheffield.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed, as part of its Levelling Up agenda, to improving transport connectivity both within and between, the towns and cities of the North. In West Yorkshire, we are providing £317m from our Transforming Cities Fund and access to the £4.2bn Intra-City Transport Fund to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Dewsbury and Huddersfield alongside £49.6m to maintain local highways and improve local transport infrastructure. In addition, local authorities in West Yorkshire will be able to bid for transport projects for the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, launched at the Budget 2021.
The Government’s Road and Rail Investment Strategies are improving strategic infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester through our £589m commitment to upgrade and electrify the Transpennine main line between Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester, and investment on the M1 between Junctions 39-42 between Wakefield and Leeds, now open to traffic. The second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2), published in 2020, also included funding for Highways England to develop proposals to upgrade M1 Junctions 35A-39. If funded for construction by the next RIS (starting in 2025), this would provide extra capacity on this stretch of the M1 and would allow more drivers to travel between Wakefield and Sheffield.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield and Manchester.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed, as part of its Levelling Up agenda, to improving transport connectivity both within and between, the towns and cities of the North. In West Yorkshire, we are providing £317m from our Transforming Cities Fund and access to the £4.2bn Intra-City Transport Fund to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Dewsbury and Huddersfield alongside £49.6m to maintain local highways and improve local transport infrastructure. In addition, local authorities in West Yorkshire will be able to bid for transport projects for the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, launched at the Budget 2021.
The Government’s Road and Rail Investment Strategies are improving strategic infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester through our £589m commitment to upgrade and electrify the Transpennine main line between Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester, and investment on the M1 between Junctions 39-42 between Wakefield and Leeds, now open to traffic. The second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2), published in 2020, also included funding for Highways England to develop proposals to upgrade M1 Junctions 35A-39. If funded for construction by the next RIS (starting in 2025), this would provide extra capacity on this stretch of the M1 and would allow more drivers to travel between Wakefield and Sheffield.