Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of the new rail capacity created by the East Coast Main Line upgrade works will be allocated to open access rail services.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport does not specify the allocation of increased capacity. However, open access operators may apply to utilise available capacity alongside operators contracted by Government. It will then be a matter for Network Rail and the Office of Rail and Road to decide through the established systems and processes how capacity should ultimately be allocated.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of East Coast Main Line intercity passenger services are delivered by open access operators.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Network Rail have confirmed that within the current timetable, published in December 2023, 8.92% of East Coast Main Line intercity passenger services are delivered by Open Access operators.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with LNER on their simpler fares trial.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Department officials engage regularly with the LNER team on the trial and we will carefully consider the results before taking decisions on any wider extension.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of direct trains from Peterborough to London Kings Cross have been cancelled in the last six months.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
London North Eastern Railway cancelled a total of 1,501 services between Peterborough and London between 23 July 2023 and 6 January 2024. This equates to 6.1 per cent of their services between these stations. In the past six months Govia Thameslink Railway had 1,673 direct services scheduled to run from Peterborough to King’s Cross, 126 (7.5 per cent) of them were cancelled. A significant proportion of cancellations were due to flooding from named storms and infrastructure failures.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2023 to Question 800 on East Coast Main Line: Weather, how many signalling failures there were on the East Coast Main Line in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022; and what assessment he has made of trends in the (i) number and (ii) frequency of signalling failures on the East Coast Main Line since 2010.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The average time between Service Affecting Failures on the ECML has become less frequent since 2010 and is trending downwards. I can confirm there were 312 signalling failures in 2021/22, and 247 in 2022/23.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether any funds from the cancellation of Phase 2 of the HS2 project will be reallocated to help increase capacity on the East Coast Main Line.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The up-to-£3.5bn upgrades for the ECML outlined in the Integrated Rail Plan remain unaffected by the Network North announcement. These upgrades will seek to upgrade and improve line speeds and capacity across the route.
The Department has provided Network Rail with early-stage development funding to begin consideration of how these ambitious plans can be delivered as efficiently as possible. Several component schemes are at a more mature stage of delivery, including enhancements at Darlington Station – where construction work has now commenced – and upgrades at York Station.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many signalling failures there have been on the East Cost Main Line in the last six months; and if he will make an assessment of the impact of these signalling failures on passengers.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Over the past six months, there have been 132 signalling-only failures across the whole of the East Coast Main Line.
We recognise that signal failures can be highly disruptive to passengers’ journeys. We are in regular contact with Network Rail, who are responsible for signalling infrastructure, and train operators to reduce the number of signal failures, the time that the infrastructure is out of action whilst repairs are undertaken and the overall impact on passengers.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the operational resilience of the East Coast Main Line to extreme weather events.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Climate change could increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather and Network Rail is planning now in order to provide a safe, reliable network in the future. Network Rail works closely with many governmental and specialist organisations to prepare our railway for the climate changes projected over the next few years, decades and beyond.
As part of its work in this area, Network Rail recently launched a taskforce led by independent experts to investigate and make recommendations on how the railway can develop its approach to resilience. East Coast route is working closely with the taskforce to take forward its recommendations to ensure the line is resilient to extreme weather.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2023 to Question 203238 on High Speed 2 Line: West Coast Main Line, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of HS2 using the West Coast Mainline on (a) local rail services in south-east Greater Manchester and (b) the viability of new local rail services in south-east Greater Manchester before any decision is made on HS2 services diverting onto the West Coast Mainline through Stockport.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Decisions on the train service that will run when HS2 opens will consider impacts on other rail services and up-to-date information on passenger demand, including those at Stockport Station.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, who the Senior Responsible Owners (SROs) are for the (i) East Coast Mainline Programme and (ii) Electrification of the Midland Mainline Programme; when those SROs started in post; on how many occasions the SROs have had to escalate project issues to his Department's board; on which dates those SROs last met Ministers; and when those SROs are next due to meet Ministers.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the East Coast Main Line is Nick Bisson who was appointed as SRO on 31 March 2022. The SRO for the Electrification of the Midland Mainline programme is Cavendish Elithorn who was appointed on 01 June 2019. Appointment letters can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dft-major-projects-appointment-letters-for-senior-responsible-owners. In line with their responsibilities as SROs regular updates on both schemes are provided to departmental Boards and Ministers with meetings as necessary.