Tag: Lilian Greenwood

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effects of Clause 21 of the Bus Services Bill on the ability of Transport for London subsidiaries to bid for local bus service contracts on routes wholly outside of London.

Andrew Jones

Transport for London is not considered as a ‘relevant authority’ for the purposes of clause 21 of the Bus Services Bill, and as such the Bill does not affect anything Transport for London may do under its existing powers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33921, on Thameslink railway line: rolling stock, what measures have been put in place relating to evacuation safety risk; and whether his Department has received any other representations on safety relating to Class 700 trains.

Claire Perry

Comprehensive emergency plans are in place between Govia Thameslink Railway, the Thameslink train operator, and Network Rail to ensure the safe evacuation from the tunnelled section of the Thameslink core route between St Pancras International and Blackfriars stations, should an evacuation of a train be required. These plans have been prepared in consultation with the Office of Road and Rail, the rail safety regulator, and the emergency services. My department has not received any other safety representations relating to the operation of the new Class 700 trains.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-07-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2016 to Question 27762, on roads: suicide, how many suicides or attempted suicides have been recorded on the Strategic Road Network in 2016 up to the most recent period for which figures are available.

Andrew Jones

Highways England’s systems are used to record incidents that occur on the Strategic Road Network.

Between 1 January 2016 and 30 June 2016, the number of incidents defined as either suicide or attempted suicide was 568.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what section 54 undertakings have been given for which rolling stock fleets; and what the (a) owning group and (b) terminating date is for each such undertaking.

Paul Maynard

The table below represents the expiry dates of the Section 54 undertakings in England and Wales which have been entered into between the Secretary of State and the owners of the rolling stock. Since September 2014 the Department has not entered into any Section 54 undertakings. Our current policy is that trains should be purchased in the market and the owner should take residual value risk.

The Scottish Government has powers which it can exercise in relation to Section 54.

Class	Owner/Lessor	No of vehicles	Current lessee	Expiry Date of Section 54
800 / 801	Agility Trains East	497	Virgin Trains East Coast	27.5 years after the Actual Acceptance Date of the first set in the fleet.
800 / 801	Agility Trains West	369	First Great Western	27.5 years after the Actual Acceptance Date of the first set in the fleet.
180	Angel Trains	25	First Great Western	31 December 2016
700	Cross London Trains	1140	GTR	21 March 2036
377	Porterbrook Leasing	792	GTR	07 March 2022
390	Angel Trains	574	Virgin Trains West Coast	31 March 2022
221	Voyager Leasing	102	Virgin Trains West Coast	31 March 2019
444 / 450	Angel Trains	733	South West Trains	23 April 2025
455	Porterbrook Leasing	364	South West Trains	01 February 2018
707	Angel Trains	150	South West Trains	31 March 2019
350/1	Angel Trains	120	London Midland	23 April 2025
350/3	Angel Trains	40	London Midland	19 September 2018
395	Eversholt Rail Group	174	South Eastern	17 years from Acceptance Date of last initial unit which was 2009.
333	Angel Trains	64	Northern	24 July 2020
350/4	Angel Trains	40	TPE	19 September 2018
165	Angel Trains	89	Chiltern	31 December 2018

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons Network Rail has not yet published a timetable to close 73 dangerous level crossings on the East Cost Main Line; and what recent discussions he has had with Network Rail over the East Coast Main Line level crossing closure programme.

Claire Perry

Network Rail has already closed over 900 level crossings since 2009 and the Department is supporting this work through a dedicated £109 million level crossing risk reduction fund during 2014-19. There are currently around 6,200 level crossings remaining on the main line network. Network Rail’s feasibility study, completed in June 2015, has identified preferred options for the closure of all 73 level crossings on the East Coast Main Line.

The Secretary of State has not had any recent discussions with Network Rail on this matter since the programme is an operational issue for the company.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20639, whether franchise agreements for future franchises within the South East Flexible Ticketing geographical area will include an obligation for operators to subscribe to that programme.

Claire Perry

We are keen that operators significantly increase the uptake of smart ticketing across all franchises and we have challenged the industry to move forward with the development of new ticketing technologies. We are working with the Rail Delivery Group to work out what would need to be specified in franchises, but it is too early to say what those specifications could look like.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what annual fee his Department will pay to (a) Ernst and Young in the UK, (b) Arup and (c) Interfleet for their advice to him on fulfilling his duties under Section 30 of the Railways Act 1993; and for what period those companies are contracted to provide him such advice.

Claire Perry

Following a successful procurement competition using the new STAR (Specialist Technical Advice for Rail) Framework Agreement, the Department has appointed a partnership comprising Arup, SNC-Lavalin Transport Advisory (InterFleet), and EY to provide services to support the Secretary of State in connection with his duties under Section 30 of the Railways Act.

The contract is for 2 years and commenced in November 2015. It has an optional extension of 12 months which is exercisable at the Department’s discretion. The fees payable to the partnership are capped at £616k (excluding VAT) for the two years of the contract. In addition to core contractual commitments, further fees are payable at agreed daily rates for other services which include, but are not limited to, the full mobilisation of a public sector train operator.

Following the successful award of the East Coast franchise to Virgin East Coast last year, it was not a good use of taxpayers’ money to maintain DoR’s full corporate structure on a ‘just in case’ basis. We have scaled back Directly Operated Railways operations and brought it in-house with the Department for Transport.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Oral Answer of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport of 28 January 2016, Official Report, columns 408-9, on rail infrastructure South-West, what progress his Department has made on funding the technical feasibility study referred to in that Answer.

Claire Perry

We are absolutely committed to making sure that the South West has the best infrastructure possible and we are determined to do everything possible to stop damage like we saw in 2014 happening again. That is why we have invested £31 million into improving the resilience of the route, Network Rail spent £40 million on repairing and strengthening the line at Dawlish after the extreme weather, and routine maintenance continues to strengthen the line further.

We are working with Network Rail and the Peninsula Rail Task Force as they explore the potential for longer-term improvements in the area, and decisions on funding for these improvements will be taken in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to data table BUS0842, published in Department for Transport Statistics, what guidance his Department gives to travel concession authorities for reporting purposes on the definition of commercial youth concessions.

Andrew Jones

The Department for Transport’s annual Concessionary Travel Survey asks the following question in relation to commercial concessions available to young people, of which there is specific guidance repeated below:

Question 19: Do the main bus operators in your authority / scheme offer commercial concessions to young people in 2015/16?

This question concerns commercial concessions only i.e. those controlled/managed/funded by a bus operator. We are aware that you may not know of all the youth schemes offered in your area, but any information you can supply here does offer us a useful starting point for gathering further information from operator websites.

If possible please specify the name of the operator, the age group (e.g. 16-18) covered, the fare charged (free, half, flat), time period (term-time only/all year, 8.30-10.30) and any other relevant information. You will have an opportunity in Q21 to tell us about any youth schemes that your Travel Concession Authority (TCA) controls/manages/funds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 2 November 2010 to the Questions from the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish, Official Report, column 702W, on bus services: finance, if he will place in the Library a copy of the equalities impact assessment carried out by his Department of the decision to reduce the value of the Bus Service Operators Grant by 20 per cent.

Andrew Jones

The equalities impact assessment was published in 2010 and can be found at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/165220-/cuts.pdf.

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