Tag: Simon Kirby

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Kirby on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether Mary Portas is still engaged as an adviser to the Government on high streets in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis

Mary Portas has helped raised the profile of British High Streets and sits on the Future High Street Forum as one of the founding members. All members play an important role and are working with Government to bring the issue of High Streets to national attention.

This Government is committed to standing up for local shops and high streets. We have done this by cutting business rates for local shops, making sensible changes to planning rules and taking action to tackle unfair parking practices.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Kirby on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage the interoperability of smart tickets on local bus services outside London where more than one bus company runs the service; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond

The Government’s ambitions for smart and integrated ticketing on England’s buses are set out in chapter 4 of the Door to Door Strategy. Local Authorities already have the powers to introduce multi-operator ticketing schemes. In March 2013, the Department published guidance to help and encourage authorities to establish schemes in their areas.

A significant number of smart ticketing schemes already operate across the UK and the Department has held a series of conversations with the Brighton & Hove transport authority and operators to see how their offer can be accelerated. All of the major urban areas, and a number of counties, have smart ticketing schemes, and all buses in London and over three quarters of buses elsewhere in England are smart-equipped.

In addition we have set up the Smart Cities Partnership, through which we will work with the nine largest cities in England (excluding London) and operators to support them in delivering and enhancing smart, integrated ticketing schemes.

The outcome of this partnership approach will be greater co-ordination of efforts, concentration on resolving long-standing problems, a framework for other transport authorities to adopt and an acceleration of delivery of smart ticketing products for passengers. I ensure accountability of the Partnership through its governance arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Kirby on 2014-04-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve rail services in the Brighton travel to work area; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond

The new TSGN franchise, as well as using the new rolling stock which will be phased into service from 2016, will require the franchisee to meet ambitious targets to improve punctuality and reliability performance, service quality and passenger satisfaction. We have also made clear to bidders that they can receive extra evaluation credit for submitting proposals that exceed our specified train service and quality requirements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Kirby on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with cities outside London on interoperability of smart tickets between rail and bus services; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond

The Department for Transport is working closely with nine major cities and regions outside London to establish how plans to accelerate smart ticketing on bus and rail can be achieved. The initiative known as the ‘Smart Cities Partnership’ and funded by the Department brings together the authorities concerned, the operators and the policy makers to address some of the technical and commercial challenges.

This programme will pave the way for other cities and authorities with similar ambitions to have smart interoperable ticket offers to passengers. It will also build upon the South East Flexible Ticketing programme which the Department is leading on which will see rail stations suitably equipped for smart ticketing, and more flexible smart ticket products on offer which are better suited to meet modern working and leisure patterns.