Author: admin

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-10-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the impact of highway works and their management by utilities and local authorities on traffic congestion and delays to road traffic, they have any plans to review the operation of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 or the Traffic Management Act 2004.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government wants to deliver better journeys for drivers. Roadworks are essential, but that doesn’t mean they should be in place any longer than is absolutely necessary. We continue to keep the implementation and operation of the relevant legislation and statutory guidance under constant review, and are taking opportunities to streamline, simplify and de-regulate what has become a complex legislative framework where possible.

In addition, we are modernising and updating secondary legislation and statutory guidance where this is necessary and where it will lead to improvements in the way that road and street works are managed. Recent examples include consultations earlier this year on updated statutory guidance relating to inspections and modernised regulations relating to the qualifications regime. In 2015, we updated regulations and guidance on permit schemes that are now in place in over 55% of local authority areas and which are resulting in more effective management of street works and reductions in the duration of works.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-10-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to tackle traffic congestion.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government has an ambitious strategy for tackling congestion in our cities and towns and improving performance on our roads. This strategy includes providing significant investment in both our strategic and local road networks, as well as encouraging more sustainable transport including buses, light rail and walking and cycling. We are providing £15.2 billion between 2015 and 2021 to invest in our strategic road network. This is the biggest upgrade to our motorways and ‘A’ roads for a generation, and it is adding capacity and tackling congestion.

The Road Investment Strategy is providing a transformational level of investment in the strategic road network (SRN), with over 400 extra lane miles of Smart Motorways, including a ‘smart spine’ linking London, Birmingham and the North West and schemes to improve critical freight routes, such as the £1.5 billion A14 scheme in Cambridgeshire and the M6 in Cheshire.

The drive to improve safety and reduce congestion underpins the vast majority of our schemes. Several schemes, however, are specifically focused on alleviating these problems – the two of which often go hand in hand. On the M25, upgrades to Junction 10 will create a free-flowing interchange with the A3, improving an area which has a high casualty rate. In the North, planning work will start for upgrades to two of the region’s most important interchanges: the M62/M1 Lofthouse interchange and the M60/M62/M66 Simister Island junction.

On local roads we have the £12 billion Local Growth Fund to 2021 which has enabled local authorities through the Local Enterprise Partnerships to identify and secure funding for projects to enable among other things, local road improvements and sustainable local transport projects. This is on top of over £6 billion through to 2021 to councils in England to help maintain their local roads and repair potholes.

This investment is set against the backdrop of a regulatory framework that is intended to provide better conditions for all road users through coordination and proactive management of the road network. The Traffic Management Act 2004 specifically places a network management duty on each local traffic authority in England to manage its road network to secure the expeditious movement of traffic on its own network and to facilitate the same on the network of other authorities. This can be achieved through traditional traffic management methods including effective enforcement of parking and management of street works but increasingly also through the deployment of technology. To support this the Department for Transport is currently inviting local authorities to bid for a share of £2m to fund demonstrator projects to test these new technologies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-10-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the economic impact on the bus industry of increased traffic congestion, in particular in respect of (1) bus speeds, (2) the deployment of additional vehicles to maintain service intervals, and (3) the attractiveness of the bus as a means of travel; and whether they have discussed this subject with the bus industry and local highway authorities.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Managing traffic congestion on the local road network, over which most buses operate, is the responsibility of local highway authorities.

The Government recognises that traffic congestion impacts on the punctuality and reliability of bus services and continues to work collaboratively with the bus industry, local authorities and other stakeholders to promote effective strategies to tackle this issue, such as operator/authority partnership working and the introduction of bus priority measures.

The average traffic speed on locally managed ‘A’ roads in England is estimated to have decreased by 3.3% since 2014, when the Department started measuring speeds over the full 24 hours of the day.

Bus punctuality data is collected and managed by local authorities, and published by the Department for Transport in online statistical tables.

The Department publishes two measures of bus punctuality for frequent and non-frequent bus services. A frequent service is one that has six or more buses per hour.

For frequent services, statistics by local authority are available in table BUS0903. This measure represents the excess waiting time arising from irregular gaps between services.

The proportion of non-frequent bus services in England running on-time is published in table BUS0902. Both tables are attached to this response.

The latest statistics show that in 2014/15, 83% of non-frequent services ran on-time compared with 80% in 2009/10. ‘On-time’ is defined as one between 1 minute early and 5 minutes 59 seconds late.

Ministers and officials have discussed the issue of congestion with Greener Journeys and representatives of the bus industry and local authorities, including at an event in the House of Commons on 14 September.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-10-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the capacity of the bus industry to meet the challenges arising from the need to deal with levels of air pollution in cities.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government has introduced several measures to encourage the uptake of environmentally friendly buses.

The Low Emission Bus Scheme (LEBS), announced last year, will provide over £30m to help buy several hundred low emission buses. The winners of LEBS was announced on 25 July, building on the success of the Green Bus Fund, which ran to 2014. Under the Green Bus Fund, £89million of Government funding helped to purchase over 1,200 green buses.

The Government is also encouraging the uptake of greener vehicles through the Bus Service Operators Grant low carbon emission bus incentive.

The Bus Services Bill, which was introduced into the House of Lords on 19^th May, will provide local transport authorities with new powers to specify the emission standards to be met by local bus services – including through franchising and, with sufficient support from bus operators, under enhanced partnership arrangements.

The Government has also invested over £26million since 2011 under the Clean Bus and Clean Vehicle Technology Funds for local authorities in pollution hotspots across England to retrofit 1000’s of buses, and other vehicles, with pollution reducing technology. This includes converting some buses to either natural gas or to electric propulsion.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-10-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 20 September (HL1612), why their estimates of the financial impact of the Office of Road and Rail’s decision on the East Coast Main Line and other associated franchises are considered commercially sensitive” information when they will need to be disclosed to any bidders for future franchises.”

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The information is considered commercially sensitive because of the impact it could have on a listed company if released at this time. This information would only be disclosed to franchise bidders on a confidential basis at the time a franchise is re-let. However, under the normal process we would expect bidders to make their own revenue forecasts.