Chris Skidmore
Main Page: Chris Skidmore (Conservative - Kingswood)Department Debates - View all Chris Skidmore's debates with the Department for Transport
(14 years, 3 months ago)
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Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) (Con)
2. What steps he is taking to make Britain’s railway system more financially viable.
The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Philip Hammond)
Sir Roy McNulty’s review of value for money on the railway has produced a scoping study that identifies that the UK’s railway is, prima facie, up to 40% more expensive than railways elsewhere in Europe. We must adjust to a world in which our aspirations for a successful railway have to be met from within a much tighter public spending envelope. I have therefore asked Sir Roy to accelerate his work looking at the drivers of cost across the industry, and to produce recommendations for creating a sustainable railway with growing passenger usage and declining subsidy.
Chris Skidmore
According to the parliamentary report “Transport in the South West”, the south-west has been hit with an increase in the price of unregulated fares. The report states that some rail fares between Swindon and London—a distance of only 77 miles—are the highest for a comparable distance anywhere in Europe. Will my right hon. Friend consider the impact of unregulated fares, especially in Bristol and my constituency of Kingswood, in future rail policy decisions?