Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help improve passenger safety on the rail network as a result of unpredictable weather patterns due to the climate emergency.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Maintaining a safe rail network, and ensuring that it is resilient to changing weather patterns and extreme weather events, remain key priorities for my Department.
The amount available to manage earthworks and drainage on the rail network has increased significantly, from £952m in Control Period 5 to £1.3bn in Control Period 6. This has enabled Network Rail, in its capacity as the infrastructure manager of Britain’s railways, to undertake additional work during this period to address the challenge of a changing climate and its impact on the railway. Resilience will be a key theme of planning for the next periodic review for Control Period 7.
Network Rail has worked hard to ensure that lessons learnt from the Carmont derailment in August 2020 are implemented across the entire rail network, building on the findings of two expert-led taskforces that resulted in the Mair and Slingo reports published earlier this year. These measures include a renewed focus on management of earthworks, proactive inspection of slopes following high rainfall using drones and helicopters, upskilling of the workforce to use weather data and technology more effectively, and trialling new technology to improve early detection and risk assessment. My Department and the Office of Rail and Road will be closely monitoring progress in implementing these recommendations.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the Department for Transport Acceleration Unit’s (1) current work programme, (2) staffing number, and (3) annual budget; and what are its achievements to date.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Since its launch in October 2020, the Acceleration Unit has supported programme and policy teams to speed up the delivery of infrastructure projects and the implementation of new policy initiatives. The work of the Acceleration Unit is driven by the need to build back better, to level up the country and to decarbonise transport.
Key achievements to date have included challenging delivery of the Restoring Your Railways programme, including the Dartmoor Line reopening and Northumberland Line; supporting the development of the National Bus Strategy, published on time in March 2021; working with DfT’s arms-length bodies on the development of modal acceleration programmes.
The currently work programme includes acceleration oversight on a portfolio of 112 projects in the north through the Northern Transport Acceleration Council; ongoing challenge on the Restoring Your Railways programme; and supporting acceleration of the Manchester & Northwest Rail Transformation Programme to bring forward benefits to passengers in the north earlier.
The Acceleration Unit is currently made up of three members of staff.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether Great British Railways will undertake local public consultations on (a) changes to services, (b) infrastructure improvements and (c) building new lines and other new projects.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Great British Railways will be organised around regional divisions responsive and accountable for the whole system in their areas. Regional divisions will need to decide priorities for investment and collaborate to operate an integrated network.
Local teams will bring decision-making closer to the people and places that the railway serves. They will be responsible for the day-to-day delivery on routes of the network and will be integrated across track and train, bringing together infrastructure, customer service, station management and train operation into one team, in partnership with operators.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether their Great British Railway reforms will (1) lead to a rationalisation of the demands on timetable space, and (2) end speculative bids from franchisees for timetable space.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
A new public body, Great British Railways, will run and plan the rail network, own the infrastructure, and receive the fare revenue. It will procure passenger services and set most fares and timetables, contracting with private companies to operate trains to the timetable and fares it specifies. Great British Railways will draw up contracts and the service plans that underpin them in line with its mandates to grow the railways and improve efficiency. Great British Railways will not design services that the infrastructure cannot support, or that are based on unworkable timetables, as happened repeatedly under franchising.
There will also be the potential for new open access services to be explored in the future where spare capacity exists to make best use of the network and grow new markets for rail.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the number of (a) miles of track and (b) stations for (i) railways and (ii) metro, tram or tube in each (A) parliamentary constituency and (B) local authority area in (1) 1950 and (2) 2020.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Office for Rail and Road (ORR) publish National Statistics on track length covering recent years. In 2020, total mainline track length was 19,398 miles (31,218 kilometres). The Department nor ORR publish statistics relating to track length at parliamentary constituency or local authority level. Nor does the ORR publish data for 1950.
ORR publish National Statistics on railway stations, but the data only goes back to 1985. In 2020, there were 2,567 total railway stations in Great Britain. Table 1410 provides a list of stations by parliamentary constituency and local authority in 2020:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage
The Department for Transport publish National Statistics on track length and stations by system for the tram and tube. In 2020/21, there were 228 miles of tram track and 264 miles of underground track in Great Britain. There were 426 tram stations and 285 underground stations. This data is published in Tables LRT0204 and LRT0201 respectively:
The Department does not hold this data for 1950.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2021 to Question 1178, Railways: Infrastructure, what estimate he has made to the public purse of introducing infrastructure changes to ensure all rail journeys are fully accessible, following the publication of the William-Shapps Plan for Rail.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As set out in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, Great British Railways will be given a statutory duty to improve accessibility - ensuring a joined-up and system-wide approach across the network. A comprehensive audit of station facilities will also be undertaken to provide robust and consistent information, and identify where improvements are needed. Further detail will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2021 to Question 1178, if he will increase the rate to 100 per cent of journeys.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
We are committed to improving rail access for all disabled passengers. By 2030, the Department’s ambition is to have equal access for disabled people using the transport system, with assistance if physical infrastructure remains a barrier.
In addition to the measures set out in the recent rail reform White Paper, I will be bidding for further rounds of funding for Access for All schemes in the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their Great British Railway white paper (CP423), published on 20 May, what annual savings they expect to make in respect of (1) delay attribution, (2) franchise agreements, (3) key train requirements, (4) ticketing and settlement agreements, (5) any other benefits.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
One of the major benefits of bringing the railways together will be to reduce fragmented decision-making. Great British Railways will be able to make substantial net savings without detriment to service or fare levels by reducing duplication, interface costs and complexity. This will include better planning of track and infrastructure works and many other operations currently subject to negotiation between Network Rail and train operating companies.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their Great British Railway white paper (CP423), published on 20 May, what role they see for private sector open access operators in the new structure for the passenger railway; and who will decide (1) whether such operators will be permitted, (2) the timetable to which they will operate, and (3) the fares they can charge.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Establishing Great British Railways will enable open access operators to benefit from national co-ordination and new safeguards.
The government will consult and work with partners, including open access operators, on the development and implementation of a new rules-based access system, underpinned by legislation.
The Office of Rail and Road will also act as an appeals body for operators. It will be able to direct Great British Railways to change its decision where it has not applied its track access and charging policies fairly.
New and existing open access services will be able to operate in the future. As now they will be able to apply for train paths and set their own fares.
We will make an announcement on next steps in relation to how GBR manages the infrastructure including the processes it will undertake when making access decisions in due course.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) performance measures and (b) regulatory framework the Great British Railways body will operate within covering (i) infrastructure, (ii) operations and (iii) track access arrangements.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Strong measures and structures will be put in place to ensure Great British Railways is accountable, transparent and reflective of its need to serve passengers, freight customers and taxpayers.
Funding streams will be conditional on meeting Great British Railways' mandate for delivering customer needs and making efficiency improvements.
Great British Railways will be subject to a series of mandates, including to operate in the interests of passengers, freight customers and local communities.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) will scrutinise Great British Railways’ delivery of its objectives across the business, and will provide expert advice to the Secretary of State and devolved administrations. ORR will have powers to require improvement plans, encourage best practice and support problem solving across the sector. They will also act as an appeals body for operators, able to direct Great British Rail to change its decision where it has not applied its track access and charging policies fairly.
The government will consult with partners across the rail industry on the development and implementation of the new rules-based track access system. We will make an announcement on next steps in due course.