Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of lower cost public transport on local economies.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Department for Transport evaluated the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), which distributed over £500 million to local areas between 2011-2015. Local authorities invested the funding in schemes to increase bus and rail patronage and active travel (cycling and walking), and complementary initiatives such as new bus services, cycle training and travel support for job-seekers.
The evaluation, which is available on the Gov.UK website, shows that the LSTF had a range of positive effects for local economies, including enhancing town centre vitality, helping jobseekers into work, and helping business with recruitment.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of train journeys in the north of England experience regular delays.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department monitors the performance of its franchised operators through pre-determined benchmarks and can require the operator to incur expenditure to deliver improved performance for passengers if it falls below a pre-determined level. North of England services are operated by a number of operators, including both those that operate wholly within the North and those that operate North-South. Therefore performance data is not held at this level.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of students that use public transport on a regular basis.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The attached tables show the proportions of students by the frequency they reported using different modes of public transport, based on responses to the National Travel Survey for England in 2017. The first table shows school children aged 5-15 and the second table shows other students aged 16 years and over. Frequency of use is for all purposes and is not limited to travel for education.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the horse racing industry on the expansion of Newmarket railway station.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Discussions have taken place between DfT and Greater Anglia (GA) the local train operating company (TOC) about the rail capacity on race days. Currently1, 2 and 3 car trains service the Ipswich to Cambridge route. GA will have new 4-carriage bi-mode trains on this route by the end of the year, which will provide even more flexibility and capacity for all passengers on this route including race days.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the potential costs of closure of the Northern rail line from Sheffield to Worksop in the event of a fire at the abandoned waste recycling site at Sandy Lane, Worksop.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Location by location assessments of all possible line closures are generally not conducted as they would require a significant number of variables and assumptions. An estimate in this specific instance has therefore not been made. The industry focuses on developing robust contingency planning processes to minimise the impact to the customer in the event of a disruption.