Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the (a) operational performance benchmarks and (b) default performance levels for train operating companies on National Rail contracts.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department holds operators to account for their performance through the National Rail Contracts. Whilst the Department does not publish details of operational performance benchmarks, we require operators to publish performance metrics on their websites and will publish annual performance fees on gov.uk once all performance fees are finalised.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Avanti West Coast on levels of train cancellations.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Officials meet Avanti West Coast’s (AWC) senior management regularly and will continue to closely monitor AWC’s progress to a sustained recovery, restoring services reliably on the West Coast and delivering the kind of service passengers rightly expect. The Rail Minister met with AWC’s Managing Director in January to challenge the operator on its operational resilience and review its plans for continued recovery in 2024. We will always hold AWC responsible for matters within its control.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which train operating companies have notified him that they have not met contractually agreed benchmarks for service quality since 18 September 2022.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Train operators are required to publish their Service Quality Regime (SQR) results on their websites each reporting period, alongside the contractual benchmarks.
The Department regularly discusses and reviews service quality performance with all operators and can take further action where scores are consistently below benchmark. Underperformance also impacts upon the amount of annual performance fee earned by private sector operators.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the SQR (a) data and (b) benchmarks used for train operating companies in financial years (i) 2022-23 and (ii) 2023-24.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Train operators are required to publish their Service Quality Regime (SQR) results on their websites each reporting period, alongside the contractual benchmarks.
The Department regularly discusses and reviews service quality performance with all operators and can take further action where scores are consistently below benchmark. Underperformance also impacts upon the amount of annual performance fee earned by private sector operators.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which train operating companies are not meeting contractual benchmarks for service quality.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Train operators are required to publish their Service Quality Regime (SQR) results on their websites each reporting period, alongside the contractual benchmarks.
The Department regularly discusses and reviews service quality performance with all operators and can take further action where scores are consistently below benchmark. Underperformance also impacts upon the amount of annual performance fee earned by private sector operators.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 20 September 2023 to Question 198801 on Exhaust Emissions: Environment Protection, how much funding has been provided for Selective Catalytic Reduction bus retrofit technology (a) since 2013, (b) in total and (c) per scheme.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Government provided £19 million for trials of retrofit technology including Selective Catalytic Reduction through the 2013 and 2015 Clean Bus Technology Funds and the 2014 Clean Vehicle Technology Fund. £64 million was provided for Selective Catalytic Reduction bus retrofit by the 2017-2019 Clean Bus Technology Fund. Between 2017 and 2023 the NO2 programme provided £31 million for bus upgrade and retrofit schemes to local authorities, with some local discretion about how this funding is allocated.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the policy paper entitled Network North, published on 4 October 2023, what the (a) rail network enhancements pipeline status and (b) project acceleration in a controlled environment stage is of the planned upgrades to Haxby Station; and when approval for this project was granted.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Haxby station project is at the Develop stage of the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline. An Outline Business Case has been completed by the City of York Council. The current PACE stage for the Haxby project is Engineering Stage 4, which is being progressed by the City of York Council. Engineering Stage 5 is due to commence later in 2024.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the extent to which (a) funding and (b) other commitments for the new West Yorkshire mass transit system referenced on page 25 of the policy paper entitled Network North, published on 4 October 2023, are additional to those committed to under the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Following the announcement of Network North, and as set out here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/city-region-sustainable-transport-settlements-2/network-north-crsts2-indicative-allocations-4-october-2023 the second round of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS2) indicative allocations for West Yorkshire Combined Authority were uplifted from £1.326bn to £2.115bn, an additional £789m as a result of savings from the cancellation of phase 2 of HS2. £500m of CRSTS2 funding is expected to go towards the delivery of the West Yorkshire mass transit system.
Network North also announced an additional £2bn of funding to be made available to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority from CRSTS3 and beyond, as a result of savings from the cancellation of phase 2 of HS2. We expect this funding will enable the authority to deliver Phase 1 of West Yorkshire Mass Transit.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the (a) total cost and (b) completion date of the proposed A75 upgrade programme.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As you will appreciate, transport matters relating to the A75 in Scotland are devolved to the Scottish Government. Nevertheless, the UK Government’s Transport Ministers and Department for Transport’s officials regularly engage with their Scottish counterparts on the recommendations made by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill’s independent Union Connectivity Review. This has resulted in the UK Government committing to providing up to £8m funding support to the Scottish Government for a detailed study to identify options for the realignment of the A75 around Springholm and Crocketford. In addition, as part of its Network North announcement, the UK Government committed to funding targeted improvements to the A75 which will be subject to the Scottish Government’s business cases at various stages throughout the process. Costs of any such scheme and associated delivery timescales will be explored as part of the Scottish Government's business cases development.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) cost and (b) completion date of the proposed A38 Somerset road improvement scheme.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The latest cost estimate provided to the Department for this scheme is £30.95 million. It has an expected completion date of January 2026.
However, whether the scheme progresses to the next phase will be dependant upon whether the Full Business Case is approved by Ministers, subsequent to an assessment and advice from officials.