Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the provision of public lavatories in the station upgrade proposals of the TransPennine Route Upgrade programme between Manchester and Leeds.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
There are no plans to make any further provision of public lavatories as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade programme inherited from the previous Government. Public lavatories will be replaced where the programme modifies or removes public lavatories at stations to facilitate works.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate Network Rail has made of the business rates that will be payable to Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in the event that planning consent is granted for a new sleeper factory at Bescot Rail Yard.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A proposal for a new facility in Bescot is being developed by Network Rail to produce the sleepers necessary for them to maintain, renew, and enhance our rail network. The facility is intended to make up the shortfall when an existing facility at Washwood Heath is closed to become an HS2 depot.
Network Rail estimates that the proposed development will generate approximately £300,000 in annual business rates revenue payable to Sandwell Borough Council.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which sites were identified by Network Rail as its (a) second and (b) third choice preference for a new sleeper factory following the selection of Bescot Rail Yard as its preferred site; for what reasons those two sites were rejected; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A proposal for a new facility in Bescot is being developed by Network Rail to produce the sleepers necessary for them to maintain, renew, and enhance our rail network. The facility is intended to make up the shortfall when an existing facility at Washwood Heath is closed to become an HS2 depot.
There were originally six sites identified as potential locations for a new sleeper factory. Following a comprehensive review, Bescot Down in Sandwell and Kingmoor Depot in Carlisle were shortlisted for final consideration.
Kingmoor was subsequently discounted for a variety of reasons, including: a number of potentially significant environmental constraints such as land contamination; being located adjacent to several designated heritage assets as well as being within a world heritage site – significantly increasing development costs and reducing viability; and its geographical location in the north-west of England posing logistical challenges for transporting sleepers to projects based around the entire network.
I have no plans to make a statement about the proposed facility.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the feasibility of Network Rail's sleeper factory at Doncaster meeting the shortfall in production capacity in the event of the potential closure of Network Rail’s exiting sleeper factory at Washwood Heath, Birmingham.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A proposal for a new facility in Bescot is being developed by Network Rail to produce the sleepers necessary for them to maintain, renew, and enhance our rail network. The facility is intended to make up the shortfall when an existing facility at Washwood Heath is closed to become an HS2 depot.
The Network Rail facility at Doncaster is not capable of being extended to increase capacity. The facility itself is entirely surrounded by adjacent development, railway lines, railway depots, housing and roads. It is operating at full capacity and only able to deliver production of 400,000 sleepers each year.
Additionally, Network Rail require a geographically separate, second facility to avoid the supply chain risk of a single point of failure, should anything prevent production at a facility.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date Network Rail will cease production of railway sleepers at its factory in Washwood Heath, Birmingham; whether there is capacity to extend production beyond this date; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A proposal for a new facility in Bescot is being developed by Network Rail to produce the sleepers necessary for them to maintain, renew, and enhance our rail network. The facility is intended to make up the shortfall when an existing facility at Washwood Heath is closed to become an HS2 depot.
Network Rail is a customer of Cemex who own and operate the facility at Washwood Heath. Production is planned to cease at this facility on 14 June 2019. The HS2 programme requires vacant possession of the site in August 2019 to enable construction works to proceed.
I have no plans to make a statement about the proposed facility.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how Network Rail has calculated the Gross Value Added to the local economy of a new sleeper factory at Bescot Rail Yard during the (a) temporary construction period and (b) once the facility is operational.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A proposal for a new facility in Bescot is being developed by Network Rail to produce the sleepers necessary for them to maintain, renew, and enhance our rail network. The facility is intended to make up the shortfall when an existing facility at Washwood Heath is closed to become an HS2 depot.
The facility is expected to generate an estimated £7.8m of Gross Value Added (GVA) per year for the local economy over the two-year construction period. One construction is complete and the facility is operational, it is estimated that the GVA will be £6.1m per year.
These figures take into account a number of factors including; the average GVA per head for manufacturing workers in Sandwell, additional direct employment as a result of the facility including an apprenticeship scheme, the sourcing of materials from local businesses, haulage contracts worth an estimated £5m, local benefits associated with the development of an unused brownfield site which will stimulate further investment, and increased business rates generated by the facility with an estimated increase of up to approximately £300,000 in business rates revenue annually.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will place in the Library copies of all correspondence between his Department, Network Rail and RAIL.ONE in relation to the proposed sleeper factory at Bescot Rail Yard.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A proposal for a new facility in Bescot is being developed by Network Rail to produce the sleepers necessary for them to maintain, renew, and enhance our rail network. The facility is intended to make up the shortfall when an existing facility at Washwood Heath is closed to become an HS2 depot.
Officials have this year corresponded with Network Rail about the proposed facility for the sole purpose of obtaining the factual information needed to provide accurate answers to the Hon. Member’s questions, as is standard practice.
I have no plans to place this correspondence in the libraries of the House.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April to Question 238613 on Railways, how many sleepers have been stockpiled by Network Rail to meet demand in the period between Washwood Heath ceasing production and the replacement facility reaching production capacity; how much was spent by Network Rail on stockpiling railway sleepers in each of the previous three financial years; and what contingency plans Network Rail has in place to meet future demand in the event that Sandwell metropolitan borough council does not grant plannig consent for a new sleeper factory at Bescot rail yard.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A proposal for a new facility in Bescot is being developed by Network Rail to produce the sleepers necessary for them to maintain, renew, and enhance our rail network. The facility is intended to make up the shortfall when an existing facility at Washwood Heath is closed to become an HS2 depot.
Information held by Network Rail about stockpiling of sleepers is commercially sensitive due to ongoing procurement. If there is a delay in receiving sleepers from the proposed Bescot facility Network Rail will use stockpiled sleepers. If the stockpile of sleepers is exhausted this will affect Network Rail’s ability to deliver renewals on the railway.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many air quality monitoring stations there are on the M6 between junction 7, Great Barr and junction 9, Wednesbury; and if he will place in the Library copies of the readings fromsuch stations in each of the last three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Highways England undertook six months of monitoring between December 2015 and June 2016 between Junction 7 and 9 of the M6. The monitoring locations are presented in the attached document;
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will review the decision to close Network Rail's sleeper factory at Washwood Heath, Birmingham; for what reason the proposed new HS2 hub on that site cannot be accommodated elsewhere; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Jones
There is a Cemex sleeper production facility currently located at Washwood Heath. This site was identified as the preferred location for the Phase One Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot in 2009 and 2012/2013 following assessments of potential sites against the depot’s functional requirements and technical and environmental criteria. The site location was approved by Parliament through The Phase One Hybrid Bill.
There is a proposal for a new facility in Bescot which is being developed by Network Rail to produce railway sleepers necessary for them to maintain, renew, and enhance our rail network in addition to the other Network Rail sleeper facilities.