Tag: Lord Bradshaw

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2015-12-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 18 November (HL3318), in the light of the fact that the franchise to Virgin Stagecoach for the East Coast Main Line specified five additional services between Lincoln and London each day, whether there are any immediate steps that can be taken, either directly or via Newark North Gate, to improve the present service.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The additional Lincoln services have been contracted by the Department to run from May 2019, because at that time the new IEP rolling stock and infrastructure enhancements (subject to the ORR granting the necessary rights) will enable Virgin Trains East Coast to operate these additional services.

However, Franchise Agreements state the minimum service provision of the train operator, and if the train operator believes that the demand exists for more services than are stipulated and they have the rolling stock, staff availability and they can obtain the required track access rights, there is nothing to stop them from running more services.

The Government believes that Train Operators are better placed to respond to the changing demands of their customers in the creation of train services.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-04-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what responsibility they have for examining how the costs of heavy rail might be reduced.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Government has a strong interest in reducing the net cost of the railway for the benefit of passengers, freight users and taxpayers, and this has been an important theme of the recent Hendy, Bowe and Shaw reviews.

In respect of infrastructure costs, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has a remit to determine the efficient cost of provision by Network Rail in each five yearly rail control period, which helps to determine the cost of track access charges for Network Rail’s customers – passenger and freight train operators. ORR sets an efficiency target for Network Rail’s operations, maintenance and renewals. Any material increases in expenditure must be agreed with the Department for Transport.

Separately, following the Bowe and Hendy reports, the Department has set in place new oversight arrangements to ensure best value is obtained from proposals to enhance the rail network, as reflected in the recently published Memorandum of Understanding between the Department and Network Rail.

In respect of train operations, the Department seeks to achieve improved value for money through the way it lets and manages contracts for passenger train services.

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 2015-12-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to give effect to the sections of the Traffic Management Act 2004 that allow for the enforcement of moving traffic offences by wardens employed by local authorities in England.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

London local authorities already have powers to enforce moving traffic contraventions alongside the police under London specific legislation. The Government however has no plans at present to enable moving traffic enforcement by local authorities outside London as the police already have the necessary powers to take action where it is needed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-06-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the conclusion by the Office of Road and Rail that it will be possible, by 2021, to run 7.5 long distance trains per hour on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) in an operationally robust timetable, in the light of the eight interventions to improve the ECML identified in the 2011 Initial Industry Plan by Network Rail at a cost of £500 million, and the later announcement of funding of £240 million.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government understands from work carried out by Network Rail that under the current plans for enhancement works on the route, 7.5 high speed paths would be available from 2021, although the detailed implications for the timetable and train performance have yet to be examined.

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 2015-12-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government on what local authorities are permitted to spend profits from parking enforcement after covering enforcement costs; and what assessment they have made of how much such profit local authorities make from such enforcement.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Unfair parking fines push up the cost of living and undermine the high street. Local authorities should be making it easier to park to support local shops, local jobs and tourism by increasing footfall. Making parking more difficult stifles local trade, driving motorists into the arms of internet retailers and out of town superstores.

Existing legislation clearly restricts the purposes for which monies generated from parking may be spent by local authorities to off-street parking, transport and environmental improvements.

The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 requires local authorities to publish a breakdown of income and expenditure on the authority’s parking account. This includes details of revenue collected from on-street parking, off-street parking and Penalty Charge Notices and a breakdown of how the authority has spent a surplus on its parking account.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-06-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the Office of Road and Rail has adequately evaluated the impact of inter-city trains on the East Coast Main Line sharing the tracks approaching London with Thameslink services providing 24 trains per hour through the core section.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

No such assessment has been made by the Government. However, in making its own assessment, the Office of Road and Rail were aware of the requirements of the planned Thameslink service.

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 2016-01-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 17 December 2015 (HL4437), whether any independent research has been undertaken recently into the number of town-centre shoppers who use public transport and the relative value of shopping trips made by public transport users and shoppers who travel by other means.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Department of Transport is aware of three recent reports. Greener Journeys released “Buses and Economic Growth” (2012), which was funded by Greener Journeys members, and “Buses and the Economy II” (2014), which was part-funded by the Department for Transport. These reports consider the number of people who travel on shopping trips by different means of transport, including buses, and the value of their spending. Passenger Transport Executive Group (PTEG), now Urban Transport Group, released “The Case for the Urban Bus” (2013), which considers the extent to which people use buses for shopping trips in metropolitan areas.