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.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 2.18 of the National Audit Office report entitled High Speed Two: A progress update, published on 24 January 2020, whether HS2 Limited has updated its indicative estimate that the cost of undertakings and assurances was £1.2 billion; and in which year's prices was that estimate.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
HS2 Ltd has not updated this figure. The estimate was provided to the National Audit Office in late 2019 – at that time, HS2 Ltd’s cost estimates were in 2015 prices.
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 a single anytime (a) first and (b) standard class rail ticket between Durham and Basildon was in April (i) 2010 and (ii) 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The single anytime fares from Durham to Basildon are as follows:
The regulated fare for many LNER routes switched from the Super Off-Peak return to the Super Off-Peak single in 2023 due to single leg pricing. The cost of the Super Off-Peak fare are as follows:
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Q12 of the oral evidence given by Alan Over to the Transport Select Committee on 9 July 2025, HC 1139, when her Department intends to write to the Transport Committee with the information referenced in the answer to that question.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Rail Minister sent a letter on 10 September 2025 providing further information regarding Q12 of the Transport Select Committee’s oral evidence session of 9 July 2025.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has held with railway trade unions on transfers of employment to DfT Operator Limited.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department and DFT Operator have regular discussions with trade unions on a range of topics, including the transfer of currently franchised rail passenger services into public ownership. As services are transferred into public ownership, staff employed by the privately-owned operator transfer to the public sector operator in accordance with Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations. Rail trade unions are intrinsically involved in this process.