Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date his Department became aware of safety problems with the Midland Metro.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department for Transport was first made aware of safety issues regarding the tram vehicles in June 2021, but had not been informed of the impact it would have on services, (full service suspension), until 12 November 2021 when the issues re-emerged.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date his Department plans to restore Avanti trains to three services per hour between London and Birmingham.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Birmingham to London currently benefits from up to five trains per hour across three operators, and Avanti West Coast provides the most frequent services of these operators.
As the year progresses, Avanti will look into additional services to satisfy passenger demand in collaboration with other operators on this route, recognising the need to balance taxpayers’ expense and passenger capacity.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) policies and (b) grant and funding programmes his Department has introduced to provide support to individuals and organisations in response to the covid-19 outbreak; and what funding has been allocated to each of those programmes in the 2020-21 financial year.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
My department has introduced vital measures to ensure the continued safe operation of key modes of public transport throughout the pandemic. Details of the measures and costs associated have been published in the NAO’s online tracker of the Government's interventions on Covid-19. This is available online at https://www.nao.org.uk/covid-19/cost-tracker/
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he will approve the business case for the East Birmingham tram.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Transport for the West Midlands (part of the West Midlands Combined Authority) has recently confirmed that the East Birmingham to Solihull tram extension scheme is in development, and it is for them to develop a business case.
As announced at Budget and confirmed in the Spending Review, the government is investing £4.2 billion in the transport networks of eight city regions across England from 22/23, including West Midlands Combined Authority area.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to approve his Department's component of the funding package for three new railway stations on the Camp Hill line; what financial contributions the project's partners will make; and what the timetable is for each partner signing off their final contributions.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Camp Hill Line in Birmingham is strongly advocated by Mayor Andy Street, as part of his economic plan for the region. The government is supportive of these plans and is willing to provide a contribution to the development of the three new stations mentioned in the question. The full business case has been received by the Department and officials are working through the funding and timetabling of the proposed scheme. The balance of the funding will be raised and approved locally, and is a matter for West Midlands Combined Authority.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 1 September 2020 to Question 76602, what the timescale is for publishing the plan for integrated rail investment.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department plans to publish the Integrated Rail Plan for North and Midlands by the end of the year following the publication of the National Infrastructure Commission’s Rail Needs Assessment.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to speed up the delivery of High Speed Two.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Following the award of Notice-to-Proceed and the start of main works construction on Phase One, my Department is continuing to work hard to identify opportunities for HS2 to meet the ambition of the Government’s ‘Project Speed’ agenda and being forward its delivery.
To support this aim I held a constructive meeting with the four Joint Ventures responsible for delivering the Main Works Civils on Phase One to gather ideas and feedback from the industry on how to accelerate works across High Speed 2.
As recommended by the Oakervee Review, my Department is also undertaking a study to consider the efficiency of Euston station.
The Oakervee review also concluded, following experience on Phase One, that having smaller Bills/phases may be better for allowing the easier scrutiny of proposals in Parliament and therefore faster construction of the project. I intend to present legislation for the route into Manchester for deposit in Parliament by early 2022.
The department is to develop an integrated plan for rail investment to make sure we are bringing benefits to the North and Midlands as quickly and efficiently as we possibly can.