Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much of the funding allocated to reform the train ticketing system has been spent.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The department is committed to reforming the train ticketing system and improving passenger experience. There has been substantial progress in extending Pay As You Go (PAYG) ticketing in the South East and progressing PAYG trials in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. We will establish Great British Railways, ensuring fares and ticketing are managed in the interests of passengers and taxpayers.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of conclusion one of the Public Account Committee's report entitled HS2: Update following the Northern leg cancellation, HC 357, published 28 February 2025 on the governance of HS2.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In light of the Public Account Committee’s recent report on High Speed Two (HS2), this government’s priority is to deliver HS2 Phase 1 safely and to the lowest reasonable cost. We have set out urgent measures to get the programme back on track and have tasked Mark Wild, the new CEO of HS2 Ltd, with conducting a reset of the HS2 programme to provide a realistic budget and schedule and to deliver the remaining works.
As part of this reset, the government reinstated ministerial oversight of the project to ensure greater accountability and commissioned an independent review of the oversight of major transport infrastructure projects, which is investigating the effectiveness of forecasting and reporting of cost, schedule and benefits, as well as actions to deliver cost efficiencies.
The Department will update Parliament on the programme reset as it progresses.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the new Great British Railways ticketing system will automatically identify the cheapest combination of fares for each journey.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Once Great British Railways is established, it will retail online by consolidating individual train operators’ ticket websites. It will work alongside a thriving private sector retail market, which will continue to play a key role in driving innovation and investment and encouraging more people to choose rail.
The Railways Bill consultation, which launched on 18 February, will help us develop more detailed plans for GBR’s retail offer. We are consulting closely with industry, the private sector, and wider stakeholders.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to plant trees alongside roads.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is not currently taking any specific steps with regards to tree planting as this a matter for National Highways and local highway authorities (for the strategic road network and local roads respectively).
The Department does, however, encourage local highway authorities to recognise the contribution that trees make to the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities, while National Highways is, as part of its efforts to deliver on environmental goals and achieve Net Zero Targets, aiming to plant at least 3 million trees by 2030 (in addition to the trees planted as ‘essential mitigation’ for projects) to provide landscape and biodiversity benefits and help lock up carbon.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of amending the Highways Act 1980 to increase roadside trees planting.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not have plans to amend the Highways Act 1980 on this particular topic. The Department does, however, encourage local highway authorities to recognise the contribution that trees make to the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities, while National Highways is, as part of its efforts to deliver on environmental goals and achieve Net Zero Targets, aiming to plant at least 3 million trees by 2030 (in addition to the trees planted as ‘essential mitigation’ for projects), to provide landscape and biodiversity benefits and help lock up carbon.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to prevent cost overruns during the transition to Great British Railways.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Rail Sector Transformation Programme, which includes the establishment of Great British Railways, is part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio, with Departmental governance overseeing delivery.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has conducted a study of the (a) financial and (b) operational impact of rail nationalisation in Scotland.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Decisions regarding ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper services are a devolved matter for the Scottish Government. My officials engage closely with devolved counterparts on their experiences of nationalisation.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many full-time equivalent staff are working on the transfer of South Western Railways into a directly operated railway.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A new Public Ownership Programme Directorate has been established in the Department to deliver the programme to transition passenger services into public ownership over the next three years. The Directorate currently has 34 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees who work across the entire public ownership programme, not just South Western Railway. Other capabilities from across the Department, as well as external expertise, will be drawn upon as required to support the transfer of all ten operators transferring to public ownership, starting with South Western Railway in May 2025.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure that the work of Great British Rail is held to account.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Great British Railways’ new passenger-focused culture will ensure passengers are at the heart of everything it does. It will be operationally independent of, but accountable to, the Secretary of State, as well as to the UK and devolved Parliaments, supported by the Office for Rail and Road and a new passenger watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority. We will be consulting on our proposals for the legislation that will establish GBR as an arm’s length body, in due course.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if her Department will make an assessment of the value for money of (a) the Rail Delivery Group, (b) Network Rail and (c) other publicly funded railway bodies engaging public affairs agencies for lobbying purposes.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We do not hold this information; the Rail Delivery Group’s (RDG’s) structure reflects the role the organisation has played as a means of facilitating collaboration and delivering whole-system outcomes within a multi-operator sector. As a Non-Departmental Public Body, Network Rail strictly adheres to Cabinet Office rules which prohibit attendance at party conferences and the use of consultancies for lobbying activity.
The Secretary of State has not put any restrictions on RDG from attending party political conferences, international railway meetings overseas and other lobbying activities.
Furthermore, we have not carried out a value for money assessment in relation to RDG and Network Rail engaging public affairs agencies for lobbying purposes. RDG undertakes and provides a wide range of critical functions across the rail industry which deliver high value for money for the industry.
Network Rail has a profitable international consultancy arm which involves international travel and conferences; and also necessarily participates in international activities as railway standards and the railway supply chain are both international.
The Rail Delivery Group will be overtaken by GBR in due course which will be an arms-length body of the Department for Transport and therefore subject to Cabinet Office rules.