Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will estimate the total number of ministerial replies from his Department to hon. Members in a parliamentary session; and what proportion of such replies are sent (a) by letter and (b) by email.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
I refer my Hon Friend to the answer given by my Rt Hon Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Hon Member for Horsham (Francis Maude) on Monday 7 July 2014 [Official Report, Columns 5-6W].
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what statistics his Department collects on the travel-to-work patterns of staff of airports and airlines; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department holds data from the ONS Labour Force Survey on the travel time from home to work, and the method of transport used to travel, for people employed in the passenger and freight air transport industries, as well as those employed in service activities incidental to air transport. This data is published annually in Transport Statistics Great Britain, available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/transport-statistics-great-britain-2013, in tables TSGB0108–TSGB0112
The survey does not however separate out those staff working specifically in airports and airlines.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will bring forward proposals to relocate (a) staff and (b) offices of his Department to Brighton; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Department for Transport is a federated organisation comprising DfT (Central), the headquarters functions responsible mainly for policy issues, and five executive agencies responsible for the delivery of various services.
DfT Central has no current plans to relocate staff or offices to Brighton. The Department for Transport (including our Executive Agencies) will consider opportunities for relocation as they arise, for example, through departmental reorganisation and reviews of estates requirements.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to ensure that the benefits of Crossrail are shared with passengers using London Victoria, London Bridge and London Blackfriars railway stations; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Crossrail will transform rail transport in London, increasing rail capacityby 10%,reducing congestion and cutting journey times across the city. The Crossrail route will run over 100km from Reading and Heathrow in the west, through new tunnels under central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. Crossrail will provide connections with more underground lines than any other service, which will enable more direct journeys and simpler interchanges.
Crossrail will decongest many London Underground lines, notably the Jubilee, Central, District and Circle lines, which many users of London Victoria, London Bridge and London Blackfriars stations use to connect with a range of destinations across London.
A new major rail interchange will be created at Farringdon connecting Crossrail and Thameslink services. This will benefit passengers using Thameslink services to London Bridge and London Blackfriars who will be able to interchange directly onto Crossrail services operating on a 24 train per hour basis from Farringdon connecting passengers directly to Canary Wharf in 9 minutes and Bond Street in 5 minutes. Passengers using London Victoria will have quick access to Crossrail services via the tube network at Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on the introduction of part-time season tickets for rail commuters; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Part-time season tickets for rail commuters will be trialled on a London commuter route next year; a competition will be held later this year to identify a train operator to undertake the trial.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent representations he has received from organisations representing pensioners on the start and end times of the National Concessionary Bus Travel Scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
During the past twelve months we have received no representations on this subject from organisations representing pensioners.
The Chancellor has committed to maintaining the statutory concession until the end of this Parliament, and we have no plans to amend its hours of validity.
Travel Concession Authorities have powers to implement discretionary enhancements to the statutory concession, including extending the hours of validity. The Department's annual concessionary travel survey monitors the availability of such discretionary concessions, and the most recent dataset can be found at:
http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/bus08-concessionary-travel/
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions his Department has had with Brighton and Hove City Council on the condition of roads in that area; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Officials at the Department for Transport discuss highways maintenance matters with local authorities as and when issues are raised with them. Brighton and Hove City Council also registered to attent the recent "Gearing up for Efficient Highway Delivery and Funding from 2015 Roadshow" where the Department sought views from the sector on the future of funding arrangements for highways maintenance and on improvements to the value for money of the local road network programme.
The Department for Transport provides capital funding to local highway authorities from the local maintenance highways maintenance capital block grant and over the four year period from 2011 Brighton and Hove City Council's allocation is £13.9 million.
The Department has also allocated additional highways maintenance funding to authorities to help repair roads damaged due to severe weather events. For Brighton and Hove City Council this includes £0.152 million in 2010/11, £0.412 million in March 2011 and more recently £0.295 million in March 2014.
A £200 million Pothole Fund was announced in the recent Budget. From this, £168 million is being made available to councils in England through a bidding exercise. Further details of the fund were made available on 24 April, and can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/pothole-fund-2014-to-2015-application.
Any local authorities wishing to apply for a share of the funding are required to submit an application to the Department for Transport by 22 May 2014.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will estimate the modal shift from car to railway use as a result of eliminating the weekday minimum fare resulting from the use of the Network Rail card; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
It is not proposed to make any estimate of the modal shift that might result from the removal of the minimum fare applying on weekdays to the Network Railcard. The Network Railcard is offered on a commercial basis and therefore it would be for the train operators to consider any changes to its terms and conditions.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage the interoperability of smart tickets on local bus services outside London where more than one bus company runs the service; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Government's ambitions for smart and integrated ticketing on England's buses are set out in chapter 4 of the Door to Door Strategy. Local Authorities already have the powers to introduce multi-operator ticketing schemes. In March 2013, the Department published guidance to help and encourage authorities to establish schemes in their areas.
A significant number of smart ticketing schemes already operate across the UK and the Department has held a series of conversations with the Brighton & Hove transport authority and operators to see how their offer can be accelerated. All of the major urban areas, and a number of counties, have smart ticketing schemes, and all buses in London and over three quarters of buses elsewhere in England are smart-equipped.
In addition we have set up the Smart Cities Partnership, through which we will work with the nine largest cities in England (excluding London) and operators to support them in delivering and enhancing smart, integrated ticketing schemes.
The outcome of this partnership approach will be greater co-ordination of efforts, concentration on resolving long-standing problems, a framework for other transport authorities to adopt and an acceleration of delivery of smart ticketing products for passengers. I ensure accountability of the Partnership through its governance arrangements.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with cities outside London on interoperability of smart tickets between rail and bus services; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Department for Transport is working closely with nine major cities and regions outside London to establish how plans to accelerate smart ticketing on bus and rail can be achieved. The initiative known as the ‘Smart Cities Partnership' and funded by the Department brings together the authorities concerned, the operators and the policy makers to address some of the technical and commercial challenges.
This programme will pave the way for other cities and authorities with similar ambitions to have smart interoperable ticket offers to passengers. It will also build upon the South East Flexible Ticketing programme which the Department is leading on which will see rail stations suitably equipped for smart ticketing, and more flexible smart ticket products on offer which are better suited to meet modern working and leisure patterns.