Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when her Department last met with Avanti to discuss scheduling and booking problems on the West Coast mainline.
Answered by Huw Merriman
On a daily basis officials meet with Avanti to understand operational challenges, alongside ad hoc meetings on specific issues.
In addition to this DFT officials meet Avanti West Coast senior management on a weekly basis to discuss and review their recovery plan and management of key risks.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the impact on the economy of the (a) North West of England and (b) Yorkshire and Humber region of not delivering Northern Powerhouse Rail in full.
Answered by Huw Merriman
The Department for Transport is currently finalising the business case for Northern Powerhouse Rail. As part of this, we are conducting economic analysis on a range of options including an assessment as to their levelling-up impact on different regions in the North of England.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost is to (a) her Department and (b) train operating companies of outsourced cleaning contracts across the rail network.
Answered by Huw Merriman
Specific data on outsourced cleaning contracts entered into by train operating companies is not held centrally by DfT. We estimate that the 14 DfT train operating companies spend a total of around £100 million per annum on outsourced cleaning (excluding Network Rail costs).
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate her Department has made of the wider economic costs of Avanti's performance in not providing adequate service provision on the West Coast mainline.
Answered by Katherine Fletcher
Avanti West Coast (AWC) has put forward a recovery plan for improvement of its services to passengers as part of the short-term contract extension announced on Friday 7 October. Both the Office of Rail and Road and Network Rail have reviewed Avanti’s plan and are supportive of the proposition, noting its full and successful delivery requires agreement with unions. The Department is monitoring AWC’s delivery and holding AWC to account as appropriate.
The Department recognises the importance of high performing rail services for the communities, businesses and local economies they serve. The issues experienced on Avanti are exactly why we need to modernise the railways, to ensure passengers get a reliable timetable no matter when they travel and are not relying on drivers working overtime in the first place.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what requirements her Department has placed on Avanti West Coast to improve their service levels on the West Coast Main Line.
Answered by Katherine Fletcher
Avanti West Coast (AWC) has put forward a recovery plan for improvement of its services to passengers as part of the short-term contract extension announced on Friday 7 October. Both the Office of Rail and Road and Network Rail have reviewed Avanti’s plan and are supportive of the proposition, noting its full and successful delivery requires agreement with unions. The Department is monitoring AWC’s delivery and holding AWC to account as appropriate.
The Department recognises the importance of high performing rail services for the communities, businesses and local economies they serve. The issues experienced on Avanti are exactly why we need to modernise the railways, to ensure passengers get a reliable timetable no matter when they travel and are not relying on drivers working overtime in the first place.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of pay levels for staff working across the railway network.
Answered by Katherine Fletcher
According to data from the Office for National Statistics, in 2021 the median gross salary of all rail workers was £44,000. This is around 70% above the national median of £26,000.
A report, published on 6 October 2022 by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), benchmarked rail employment cost data for both Network Rail and for the first time Train Operating Companies with comparative roles. The report found aggregate industry level pay was broadly in line with (but towards the upper end of) that for comparable roles employed elsewhere in the UK economy.
The report can be found here: Review of rail industry employment costs (orr.gov.uk)
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make a comparative assessment of the effectiveness of smart motorways where the hard shoulder (a) remains and (b) has been removed.
Answered by Katherine Fletcher
We have paused the rollout of new smart motorways to collect more safety and economic data to make informed decisions on next steps. We will also consider alternative options for enhancing capacity on the Strategic Road Network. The latest evaluation of safety is found in Smart motorways stocktake - Second year progress report 2022, https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-work/smart-motorways-evidence-stocktake/. National Highways publishes Post Opening Project Evaluations for all individual smart motorway schemes when one-year data and five-year data is available. These are published at https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/post-opening-project-evaluation-pope-of-major-schemes/.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made on the viability of new smart motorways; and what assessment she has made of the value for money of those motorways given that they do not have a hard shoulder.
Answered by Katherine Fletcher
We have paused the rollout of new smart motorways to collect more safety and economic data to make informed decisions on next steps. We will also consider alternative options for enhancing capacity on the Strategic Road Network. The latest evaluation of safety is found in Smart motorways stocktake - Second year progress report 2022, https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-work/smart-motorways-evidence-stocktake/. National Highways publishes Post Opening Project Evaluations for all individual smart motorway schemes when one-year data and five-year data is available. These are published at https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/post-opening-project-evaluation-pope-of-major-schemes/.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the removal of hard shoulders on new smart motorways in the North West of England.
Answered by Katherine Fletcher
We have paused the rollout of new smart motorways to collect more safety and economic data to make informed decisions on next steps. We will also consider alternative options for enhancing capacity on the Strategic Road Network. The latest evaluation of safety is found in Smart motorways stocktake - Second year progress report 2022, https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-work/smart-motorways-evidence-stocktake/. National Highways publishes Post Opening Project Evaluations for all individual smart motorway schemes when one-year data and five-year data is available. These are published at https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/post-opening-project-evaluation-pope-of-major-schemes/.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of smart motorways in the North West of England.
Answered by Katherine Fletcher
We have paused the rollout of new smart motorways to collect more safety and economic data to make informed decisions on next steps. We will also consider alternative options for enhancing capacity on the Strategic Road Network. The latest evaluation of safety is found in Smart motorways stocktake - Second year progress report 2022, https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-work/smart-motorways-evidence-stocktake/. National Highways publishes Post Opening Project Evaluations for all individual smart motorway schemes when one-year data and five-year data is available. These are published at https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/post-opening-project-evaluation-pope-of-major-schemes/.