Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost of an annual standard class rail season ticket was between Rochdale and Manchester stations in (a) 2010 and (b) 2024.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The standard class annual rail season ticket between Rochdale and Manchester was (a) £900.00 in 2010 and (b) £1,396.00 in 2024.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress has been made on the reopening of the Camp Hill line in Birmingham.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My officials are in regular contact with West Midlands Rail Executive and the West Midlands Combined Authority, who are reopening the Camp Hill line with three new stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road.
Construction is close to completion; the stations are expected to be open for public use early next year.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the National Rail Fares Manual database is free to use by the general public through (a) download and (b) programmatic query.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The National Rail Data Portal provided by National Rail allows registered users to access railway data on fares. Where users are requesting high volumes of data, the Terms and Conditions outlines that charges apply for high volume usage in some instances.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department holds information on the number of railway strike days, broken down by year; and what is the first year for which such records are held.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Published Office of Rail and Road data reports that there were 52 national strike days between April 2022 and March 2024.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Network Rail's spreadsheet published on 2 February 2022 entitled Payments for disruption on the railway, if Network Rail will publish an updated version of that table.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail publish information to meet their statutory obligations and where it would be valuable to the public.
They aim not to duplicate information published elsewhere (for instance on their Safety Central site, their Annual Report and Accounts, or through the Rail Data Marketplace).
Annual Schedule 8 payment figures are published in Network Rail’s Regulatory Financial Statements.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will have discussions with National Highways on reactivating the overnight lights on the Rubery flyover on the A38.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Street lighting on this section of the highway is the responsibility of the local highway authority rather than National Highways. It is for each local highway authority to assess which parts of its network require attending to and to what standards based upon local knowledge and circumstance. The Government does not intervene in such local matters. Hence, I would encourage you to engage with the responsible local highway authorities, Birmingham City Council and Worcestershire County Council.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number Yutong buses ordered for operation in the UK by operator.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department holds partial information on the number of Yutong buses ordered for operation in the UK. The information in the table below is correct as of November 2025 for England only, taken from projects which the Department has funded. This includes buses which are in service and those which have been ordered. We do not hold data on any Yutong buses ordered outside of these schemes.
Operator | Number of Yutong buses |
Stagecoach | 215 |
First Bus | 329 |
Kinchbus | 21 |
White Bus | 10 |
Leicester City Council | 6 |
Nottingham City Transport | 62 |
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has held recent discussions with (a) DB Cargo and (b) railway preservation groups on preserving the 58050 locomotive.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Freight operators are private sector companies who lease or own their rolling stock. Any such decisions relating to the preservation of locomotives would be a commercial matter for those freight operators.
The department has not held any recent discussions with DB Cargo or railways preservation groups regarding the preservation of the 58050 locomotive.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress she has made on the appointment of a new CEO of DfT Operator Limited.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The contract for the current CEO of DfT Operator Limited is due to end in December 2025. In preparation for this, work is continuing to recruit a new CEO to ensure continued leadership for the organisation.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether retired former employees of British Rail will retain travel privileges following the creation of Great British Railways.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government understands the importance of travel concessions for retired former British Rail employees and there are no plans to change these arrangements under Great British Railways.