Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 55867 on Rolling stock, what her timetable is for making an estimate of the potential impact of the time taken to introduce Class 701 rolling stock on the Waterloo-Reading line on costs to the public purse.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My officials are currently considering the most appropriate way to approach this issue. Given the complexity of this task, we are unable to commit to a timetable of when this work will be completed.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the time taken to introduce Class 701 rolling stock on the Waterloo–Reading line on costs to the public purse.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My Officials are keeping the position under active review and will look into overall costs of the delays to the Class 701 introduction programme at the appropriate time.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has imposed contractual penalties on South Western Railway in relation to the time taken to deploy the Class 701 trains.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My Department have not imposed contractual penalties on First MTR South Western Railway Trains Limited in relation to the time taken to deploy the Class 701 trains. I am extremely disappointed with how long the Class 701 introduction has taken and the Secretary of State and Rail Minister met with the former private sector owners to challenge them.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when her Department expected the Class 701 Arterio trains to be introduced on the Waterloo–Reading line at the time of procurement.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
South Western Railway entered into the current rolling stock lease contracts in 2017, with the new Class 701 fleet due to be delivered 2019-2021. The Class 701 introduction has been significantly delayed and I am disappointed with how long it has taken.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has set a revised timetable for the introduction of the full Class 701 fleet on the Waterloo–Reading line.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
South Western Railway services transferred into public ownership on Sunday 25 May. This was a watershed moment in our work to return the railways to the service of passengers. The new Managing Director of SWR is now developing a detailed plan to get the new trains into service.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when she expects the Class 701 Arterio rolling stock to be operational on the Waterloo to Reading line.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
South Western Railway services transferred into public ownership on Sunday 25 May. This was a watershed moment in our work to return the railways to the service of passengers. The new Managing Director of SWR is now developing a detailed plan to get the new trains into service.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 54187 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points, how much of the £200 million allocated in the Autumn Budget 2024 has been spent in each month to date.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The £200m to accelerate EV chargepoint roll out announced at Autumn Budget 2024 will be invested in the financial year 2025/26 (April 2025 to March 2026) to support local, en-route and home and workplace charging. At the end of May 2025 no payments had yet been made.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 12 May 2025 to Question 49854 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points, how much of the funding allocated for charging infrastructure in the Autumn Budget 2024 has been spent; and how that money has been spent.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The £200m to accelerate EV chargepoint roll out announced at Autumn Budget 2024 will be invested in the financial year 2025/26 (April 2025 to March 2026) to support local, en-route, and home and workplace charging.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department plans to take to help tackle potential barriers to the (a) deployment and (b) commercial viability of electric vehicle charging stations.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The £381m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund supports local authorities in England to work with industry and transform the availability of EV charging for drivers without off-street parking. The fund will support the commercialisation of, and investment in, the local charging infrastructure sector and is expected to leverage significant private investment to deliver over 100,000 chargepoints.
Furthermore, the Government has announced changes to street works and planning permissions, making it easier, quicker and cheaper to install infrastructure.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on steps to help increase levels of ownership of electric vehicles.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Ministers from across Government regularly meet to discuss the transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), including policies to increase levels of ZEV ownership and the ZEV Mandate. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles is a joint office between the Department for Transport and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and reports to Ministers in both departments in relation to the transition to zero emission vehicles.