Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of proposed train ticket office closures on tourism in rural areas.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, including closures, operators are required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of passengers who are disabled; and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups.
Together with industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. No currently staffed station will be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and train operators will ensure staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress his Department has made on implementing the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine scheme.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Good progress has recently been made on the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine scheme.
The planning application for the scheme was accepted by the Planning Inspectorate on 19 July. The examination of the application is due to commence next week and is expected to take six months.
On 13 October National Highways awarded contracts to the four contractors helping to develop the scheme.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking with the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to support the proposed movement of the A66 Trans-Pennine Project further north and away from local communities.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department continues to closely follow the development of the A66 Trans-Pennine project and is leading on the cross-Government stakeholder engagement. In parallel, National Highways regularly liaises with the local communities and stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Defence and Natural England (sponsored by DEFRA) on the project’s progress.
National Highways’ aim is to design the best scheme possible, taking into account all feedback and policy. Following feedback from the 2021 public consultation and from the recent targeted consultations with the local communities, National Highways has revisited a number of options, including moving sections of the Warcop road further north. This has resulted in the identification of the opportunity to dual the western section of the scheme directly to the north of the existing A66 rather than to the south as previously proposed (i.e. using the existing A66 largely as the westbound rather than the eastbound carriageway). There are a number of benefits to this and other changes. Further information can be found in the project’s March update brochure which is available on the scheme’s website.