Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jim Cunningham and Paul Maynard

Thursday 30th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Paul Maynard]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising the issue of freight. It is an important part of our railway that perhaps gets overlooked by many who do not think carefully about how we utilise our rail network. I have frequent meetings with the rail sector and frequent engagement with officials in the Department. We always look to embed concerns about freight in any decisions that we take about the future of the network.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

3. What assessment he has made of the safety implications of tyres on motor vehicles being more than 10 years old.

Railway Stations: Car Parking Charges

Debate between Jim Cunningham and Paul Maynard

Wednesday 19th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Paul Maynard]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. The impact will differ from station to station across the network. The stations that I am familiar with all have their own quirks and differences in terms of how local people utilise them, approach them, park, drop passengers off, and so on. This can have a substantial impact on the local road network. It is very important that train operators work together with local highway authorities to plan the local road network immediately around the station to make sure that no passenger is inconvenienced. I can think of many cases at peak hours where, all too often, we have traffic jams. I hope that train operating companies will hear my plea for them to work far more closely with the local highway authority to plan traffic flow and ensure that, wherever problems can be minimised, we seek to do so.

As I keep saying, we need to continue to invest in our station facilities.

[Mr Jim Cunningham]

rose—

[Paul Maynard]

I will happily give way. I was about to talk about Coventry.

[Mr Cunningham]

The Minister said that he hoped that the train operators would take note of what he says. May I suggest, in the nicest possible way, that it would not be a bad idea to take our concerns to a meeting with the train operators’ representatives?

[Paul Maynard]

I should praise the hon. Gentleman for almost being psychic in predicting what I was about to say. I am more than happy to have that conversation next time I meet Virgin West Coast, which I try to do as frequently as I can. Only today, I heard about some of the interesting plans in Coventry for a new boulevard into the town centre and potential new car parking facilities that, by expanding capacity, might allow costs to come down. Coventry is having an interesting time. I gather that in Rugby there is also substantial investment in cycle-rail facilities, which help to ensure that people have more options in how they get to the station, including bicycle hire. That is a good step forward.

[Mr Cunningham]

The Minister will know that in Coventry we have the NUCKLE project, which we are hoping to get started very soon. That has taken about 10 years to get off the ground.