Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment Network Rail has made of the potential impact of (a) the reopening of the Camp Hill Line and (b) the May 2026 timetable change on capacity constraints at Birmingham New Street.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
West Midlands Combined Authority produced a Full Business Case for delivery of Moseley, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road stations on the Camp Hill line. The stations facilitate a range of transformational benefits to the region including job creation, new supply chains, economic growth, and decarbonisation by moving passengers from road to rail.
The services for the new stations have been agreed via the usual Network Change process to ensure all stations affected, including Birmingham New Street, meet regulatory compliance requirements.
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 of ticket sales for season tickets from (a) Longbridge, (b) Northfield and (c) Kings Norton to (i) Birmingham stations, (ii) Redditch and (iii) Bromsgrove in the 2024-2025 financial year.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The number of season tickets is shown below
Origin | Destination | Number Of Season Tickets |
Longbridge | Birmingham stations | 1,369 |
Longbridge | Bromsgrove | 162 |
Longbridge | Redditch | 216 |
Northfield | Birmingham stations | 2,001 |
Northfield | Bromsgrove | 15 |
Northfield | Redditch | 93 |
Kings Norton | Birmingham stations | 3,446 |
Kings Norton | Bromsgrove | 43 |
Kings Norton | Redditch | 149 |
The Birmingham stations group includes Birmingham Moor Street, Birmingham New Street and Birmingham Snow Hill.
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 determination of the future of Birmingham's PFI roads contract.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has taken careful note of the High Court ruling relating to the previous Government’s decision not to support the PFI arrangements for Birmingham City Council’s highway maintenance services.
The Department has subsequently conducted a consultation with the Council about the PFI contract and we have been carefully reviewing the Council’s detailed representations, with the Council’s support on clarification questions.
We are continuing to engage with the Council on the PFI with a view to confirming the decision on whether or not to support the continuation of the PFI contract as soon as possible.
I am committed to working together with Birmingham City Council to find a way forward which is in the best interests of the people of Birmingham and the taxpayer.
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 |