Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to support people to purchase used electric vehicles; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The second-hand electric vehicle market will have an important role in the UK’s transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs). We already have various financial incentives to stimulate the new ZEV market and increase the supply of these vehicles feeding through to the second-hand market. Additionally, our funding for chargepoint infrastructure at homes, workplaces, residential streets and across the wider roads network is also supporting consumers to buy used ZEVs.
Fleet operator businesses buy over half of the new vehicles sold each year and are major suppliers to the used market, therefore encouraging them to go zero emission will spur the used ZEV market. As confirmed in March 2020, users of zero and ultra-low emission cars will continue to benefit from favourable company car tax rates (compared to conventionally fuelled vehicles) until 2024-25. In addition, buyers of both new and used ZEVs do not pay vehicle excise duty.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to involve Local Access Forums in the evaluation of his Department's e-scooter trials.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The evaluation will include interviews with national and local organisations ensuring that a broad sample of expertise and perspectives are included in its findings. Additionally, the project is in regular contact with the implementing local authorities and the evaluation is interviewing a sample of representatives from these areas.
Local Access Forums (LAFs) are concerned with local issues and engage directly with local authorities who are best placed to deal with those concerns. The views of the LAFs will be represented through the local authority interviews and through our engagement with other organisations that span LAFs responsibilities.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to publish the report on road safety targets that was commissioned by his Department in conjunction with WSP and Loughborough University.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The report will be published in full later this year.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of reducing the number of HS2 platforms planned at Euston Station from 11 to 10 on the (a) overall capacity on (i) HS2 and (ii) the HS2 Eastern route and (c) reliability and resilience of HS2 services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Work is ongoing to develop an optimised design and delivery strategy for Euston Station, including consideration of opportunities, efficiencies and scope reductions to address identified cost pressures. As part of this work, the Department and HS2 Ltd have, with the involvement of other partners, been investigating whether building the HS2 station in a single phase would speed up delivery and reduce the overall cost. This work is currently indicating that moving to a slightly smaller, simpler HS2 station at Euston would have some benefits in terms of terms of reducing costs and risks. This work will help inform the way forward, with a final decision expected in Spring 2021.
Initial HS2 Ltd analysis indicates that moving to a slightly smaller HS2 station at Euston maintains the station infrastructure capacity to run all of the services in the planned HS2 Phase 2b Train Service Specification. The future development of the final HS2 timetable, in due course, will have close regard to optimising resilience and capacity.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase rail connectivity between Nottingham and the rest of the UK.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
We are always looking to improve rail connectivity and am pleased to say that the new Midland Mainline timetable in May will reduce journey times for peak trains between Nottingham and London St. Pancras by up to 10 minutes.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Eastern leg of HS2 goes ahead.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring the East Midlands, Yorkshire, and the North East reap the benefits of high-speed services. The Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), will consider the sequencing and delivery of HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and other rail investment projects to ensure the benefits of these investments are delivered to passengers and communities more quickly. We will publish the IRP this Spring.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to revise his Department’s Road Traffic Forecasts to take account of the Government’s commitment to increase cycling and walking to 50 per cent of short journeys in towns and cities by 2030.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department regularly updates its Road Traffic Forecasts to provide a strategic view of how road travel demand may develop in future, with a focus on exploring the uncertainty around key drivers of demand. In planning future forecasts, consideration is given to relevant transport policies that may impact on road travel demand. The impact of the government’s walking and cycling commitments on motorised road traffic will be considered when the forecasts are next updated.
The forecasts are produced using the Department’s National Transport Model (NTM). To produce the forecasts, the NTM takes account of the travel choice between walking, cycling, rail and bus as well as car. However, the NTM is not designed to forecast cycling levels, which will be influenced by a range of factors not included in the model.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for road and public transport use of his target to increase cycling and walking to 50 per cent of short journeys in towns and cities by 2030; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of that target on (a) carbon dioxide emissions, (b) pollutant emissions, (c) urban congestion, (d) road safety and (e) ill-health due to physical inactivity.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department has not yet made a detailed assessment of the wider impacts of meeting the 2030 vision set out in Gear Change. These and other matters will be considered as part of the development of the next Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) in due course. The impacts will depend on what journeys are replaced by cycling and walking journeys, which is likely to vary from one place to another. The Department’s existing CWIS active travel investment models explore different scenarios for increasing cycling and walking and their impacts, including those related to carbon dioxide emissions, urban congestion, road safety and health. These are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycling-and-walking-investment-strategy-active-travel-investment-models .
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the potential annual gross income stream across all train operating companies after the covid-19 lockdown from (a) weekly seasons tickets and (b) 3-day or part time period tickets and (c) season tickets for travel on specific days of the week.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Passenger demand has fallen dramatically over the last year in response to COVID-19. Due to this and a potential future shift in passenger behaviours, future rail income is also uncertain. Any new flexible season ticket products will aim to encourage and support passengers returning to the railway when it is safe to do so.
We are working closely with industry to develop a solution that offers better value and convenience for those who commute flexibly and will provide further details in due course.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans for the successor scheme to the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy to (a) retain the existing targets to double cycling trips and to increase walking trips to school journeys, (b) include a strengthened target to boost overall walking and (c) include and clarify the target from the Government’s Gear Change vision document, for half of all journeys in towns and cities being cycled or walked by 2030.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS 2) will be published after the Government has agreed and set out its long-term spending plans for active travel at the next multi-year Spending Review. It will reflect and build on the commitments outlined in the Prime Minister’s Cycling and Walking Plan of July 2020, as well as setting out the financial resources available for cycling and walking and the other matters required by the Infrastructure Act 2015, including targets for cycling and walking.
These plans will be formally set out to Parliament in due course, as is required by the Infrastructure Act 2015.