Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve road safety on the A19 road in north-east England.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The A19 is some 124 miles in length of which Highways England is responsible for the 67 mile section between Thirsk in North Yorkshire and Seaton Burn in Tyne and Wear with the remainder being the responsibility of local highways authorities.
Since 2011, Highways England have delivered safety improvements at ten locations on the A19, including improvements to traffic signals and road markings, provision of additional road capacity to reduce congestion, and improved facilities for pedestrians and cyclists.
The Government provides the Integrated Transport Block funding for local highways authorities; this is aimed at small scale transport schemes and can be used for safety improvements. It is for each individual local highway authority to manage its network, based upon its local knowledge and circumstances.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number of people who travel to work by (a) car, (b) bus and (c) rail in (i) the North East, (ii) Tyne and Wear, (iii) England and (iv) the UK.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The number of people who usually travelled to work by car, bus and rail in Tyne & Wear, the North East, England, and the UK in 2016 are given in the table below (based on the Labour Force Survey).
| Car | Bus1 | Rail2 |
Tyne & Wear | 335,000 | 72,000 | 33,000 |
North East | 887,000 | 115,000 | 43,000 |
England | 17,974,000 | 1,888,000 | 2,934,000 |
UK | 21,675,000 | 2,230,000 | 3,106,000 |
1 Also includes coaches.
2 Includes national rail, underground, light railway systems and trams.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 4.7 and 4.57 of the Autumn Budget 2017, what plans his Department has to ensure that the proposed new fleet of Metro rolling stock will be introduced onto the network by 2021.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
In the Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £337m direct grant funding for a new Nexus Metro fleet and depot for the Tyne and Wear Metro. The Metro is a critical part of both local transport provision and the wider economy in the region, and this investment will be a vital boost to the area, supporting access to employment, education and leisure.
To achieve this result, the Department worked closely with HM Treasury. The committed funding is in response to a business case from the North East Combined Authority. Nexus will manage procurement, delivery and rollout of the new fleet of trains and will report progress to the joint DfT-Nexus programme board throughout this process.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 4.57 of the Autumn Budget 2017, how much of the National Productivity Investment Fund will be allocated to improving the Tyne and Wear Metro.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
In the Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £337m direct grant funding for a new Nexus Metro fleet and depot for the Tyne and Wear Metro. The Metro is a critical part of both local transport provision and the wider economy in the region, and this investment will be a vital boost to the area, supporting access to employment, education and leisure. All of this funding is from the National Productivity Investment Fund.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 4.43 of the Autumn Budget 2017, how much of the additional funding to tackle potholes in England will be allocated to projects in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside local authority and (c) the North East.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The allocation of the additional £46 million funding for repairing potholes as announced in the Autumn Budget 2017 to individual local highway authorities will be announced in due course.
This funding is in addition to over £6 billion funding the Department for Transport is providing between 2015 to 2016 to local highway authorities in England, outside London, to help improve road condition, including repairing potholes. This funding includes £250 million to as part of the Pothole Action Fund.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 4.46 of the Autumn Budget 2017, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people aged 26 to 30 who will benefit from the proposed introduction of a new discount railcard for that age group in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside and (c) the North East.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The government is working with industry to extend the benefits of discounted travel. The Department has not made estimates of the number of people who will benefit from the proposed railcard on such a geographic basis. All people aged 26 to 30 who purchase a card would be eligible for discounted rail travel under the proposal.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2017 to Question 108535, what funds are available to support replacement of rolling stock on the Tyne and Wear Metro.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
In the Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £337m for a new Nexus Metro fleet and depot for the Tyne and Wear Metro. The Metro is a critical part of both local transport provision and the wider economy in the region, and this investment, which will be direct and not via private finance, will be a vital boost to the area, supporting access to employment, education and leisure. To achieve this result, the Department worked closely with local leaders and with HM Treasury.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much from Highways England's Growth and Housing Fund has been spent on projects in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside and (c) the North East.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Growth and Housing Fund (GHF) schemes are identified via competitive bidding rounds run in partnership with the Local Enterprise Partnerships and Combined Authorities, who put forward bids on behalf of their local authorities. These bids are then sifted against the published GHF criteria and, if successful at sift stage, subject to a full scheme appraisal and detailed business case.
At present, none of the Growth and Housing Fund has been awarded to any projects in the (a) Jarrow constituency or (b) South Tyneside Borough area. In the wider (c) North East region, £1.01m has been awarded to the A1 Darlington project.
One bid has been made into the Growth and Housing Fund (GHF) from the Jarrow constituency and the South Tyneside local authority area. In total, seven bids have so far been made into the fund from the North East region.
The bid received in the Jarrow constituency is the A19 Mill Lane scheme. The scheme was subsequently fully funded by the DfT’s National Productivity Infrastructure Fund (NPIF) and has been withdrawn from the GHF.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the performance and punctuality of services on the Tyne and Wear Metro.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Responsibility for the operation of the Tyne and Wear Metro is a matter devolved to the North East Combined Authority (NECA), and the monitoring of the performance rests with Nexus (the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive).
Regular updates are provided to North East Combined Authority meetings, where performance is scrutinized and the Department for Transport is provided with performance information on a regular basis.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on additional transport infrastructure investment for the North East ahead of Autumn Budget 2017.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Secretary of State has regular discussions on a variety of matters with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.