Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to report on the Network Rail (London to Corby) (Land Acquisition, Level Crossings and Bridge Works) Order application.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The decision by the Secretary of State on the Transport and Works Act Order application by Network Rail for the London To Corby (land acquisition and bridge works) Order will be made in the near future.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many train journeys (a) operated by Thameslink, (b) operated by East Midlands Trains and (c) in the UK were disrupted due to buckled tracks in hot weather in 2019.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Although the temperatures seen in late July were exceptional, we recognise the impact that cancellations and alterations to services had on passengers. We are unable to provide the data requested, however, as it is not held by the DfT. The data may be held by Network Rail; we advise you contact them directly for further information or refer to their websites.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Network Rail on upgrading tracks to prevent buckling in hot weather.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Government recognises passengers need the certainty of reliable and safe journeys, and is determined to work with industry to improve performance on the railway.
With regard to rails buckling, Network Rail have been treating rails to enable them to cope with heat, and have been applying reflective paint to reduce the heat absorbed. Since 2003, these methods have decreased the number of rail buckling incidents by 83%.
After all periods of poor weather, Network Rail undertakes a lessons process to identify actions that were successful in managing the issues and where further action and improvement is needed. In addition, Network Rail is also looking to the longer term and has in place a weather resilience and climate change strategy to ensure the infrastructure can cope with climate change and short-term periods of extreme weather.
One of the top priorities for the Secretary of State and myself is to get the trains running on time, which is why we are investing a record £48bn to modernise our network, boost reliability and create a railway fit for the 21st century.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the oil sector on introducing charging points for electric vehicles at (a) service stations and (b) petrol forecourts.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government has had a number of discussions with representatives of the oil sector about the provision of electric vehicle charge points at service stations and petrol forecourts. We are encouraging the private sector to invest in and operate a self-sustaining public network supported by the right policy framework. Only last week, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Transport met with automotive industry leaders, where there was a discussion about having the right charging infrastructure in place and a number of new commitments about charging were made to make electric vehicles more convenient than ever to own. The Government’s view is that the market is often better placed to identify the right locations for chargepoints and it is essential that viable commercial models are in place to ensure continued maintenance and improvements to the network. As evidence of this, BP Chargemaster, the UK’s largest electric car charge point provider, announced last month that it will install 400 points capable of ultra-fast 150kW charging by 2021 – including 100 at 50 sites by the end of 2019.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to replace the plug-in car grant to encourage the manufacture and sale of low emission vehicles.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Our mission is to put the UK at the forefront of the design, manufacture and uptake of zero emission vehicles. We are investing more than £1.5bn between 2015 and 2021 to support this. The plug-in car grant continues to support the purchase of the cleanest vehicles and will remain in place until at least 2020. Our Road to Zero Strategy confirmed that consumer incentives in some form will continue to play a role beyond 2020.
The government recently announced company car tax rates out to 2022-23. To accelerate the shift to zero emission cars, all zero emission models will pay no company car tax in 2020-21, 1% in 2021-22 before returning to the planned 2% rate in 2022-23 – a significant tax saving for employees and employers.
Alongside other measures in the government’s Road to Zero strategy, including support schemes for the installation of charge points, the UK government’s support package adds up to one of the most comprehensive worldwide. As part of the upcoming spending review, government will be setting out funding and other measures for future years.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many charging points for electric vehicles there are in England; and how many of those are located in each region.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Figures on the total number of electric vehicle chargepoints are unavailable. Members of the public and businesses are able to install chargepoints without government support, and information on these are not routinely collected. Chargepoints that do receive government funding can be decommissioned or removed without notifying Government. The charging point platform Zap-map reports that, as at July 16th, there are 19,939 publicly available connectors in England, with the numbers in each region as follows:
Region | Number of chargepoint connectors | Percentage within England |
East Midlands | 1,299 | 7% |
East of England | 1,618 | 8% |
Greater London | 6,417 | 32% |
North East | 1,045 | 5% |
North West | 1,807 | 9% |
South East | 3,239 | 16% |
South West | 1,903 | 10% |
West Midlands | 1,388 | 7% |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 1,223 | 6% |
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will provide the (a) punctuality and (b) reliability data for the Thameslink service between Bedford and London stations for each month of 2019 to date.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department holds performance data on a rail period (13 four-week periods per year) basis, rather than according to calendar months.
For punctuality we hold the data as the Public Performance Measure (PPM), the percentage of trains arriving at their destination within five minutes of schedule. For reliability we hold the data as Cancellations and Significant Lateness, the percentage of services that are cancelled or delayed by more than thirty minutes.
The periodic results for the Thameslink route between Bedford and London, covering all days of the week in both directions, are contained in the table below. This does include the vast majority of services that passengers from Bedford would use, except for a small number of services which stop at all stations south of St Albans, which are counted in a separate ‘metro’ category. As this is data for the entire service group, it will include some trains that did not run the full length of the route.
Period | PPM | CaSL |
9 December 2018 – 5 January 2019 | 85.6% | 4.4% |
6 January 2019 – 2 February 2019 | 83.0% | 4.5% |
3 February 2019 – 2 March 2019 | 85.9% | 4.0% |
3 March 2019 – 31 March 2019 | 83.7% | 5.8% |
1 April 2019 – 27 April 2019 | 88.4% | 4.2% |
28 April 2019 – 25 May 2019 | 86.4% | 3.0% |
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to reinstate East Midland Train services to Bedford.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Peak calls on East Midlands services have been removed temporarily while we deliver the biggest upgrade to the Midland Main Line since it was completed in 1870, which will help deliver enhanced services from 2020.
From December 2020, once the Midland Main Line upgrade is complete, passengers at Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford, Luton and Luton Airport Parkway will benefit from a new, dedicated East Midlands service into London St Pancras.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to ensure that (a) the rail industry is ready for the timetable changes due to be implemented on 9 December 2018 and (b) those changes will be delivered without adverse effects on passengers.
Answered by Andrew Jones
At the Department’s request, Andrew Haines (Network Rail CEO) led industry in reviewing plans for the December 2018 timetable in light of the disruption seen in May 2018. The rail industry advised reductions in the scale of the planned changes for the December 2018 timetable, specifically to reduce the risk of disruption for passengers.
In addition, the rail industry has put in place additional assurance processes to test that plans for delivery of the timetable are robust and the Secretary of State has received on-going assurance from industry leaders on its readiness for the implementation of timetable change on 09 December 2018.