Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the proposed level of (a) Departmental and (b) parliamentary oversight will be of the Great British Railways body.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Secretary of State for Transport will be accountable to Parliament for how the railways deliver for passengers, communities, the economy, the environment and taxpayers. Ministers will hold Great British Railways to account through a structured framework underpinned by legislation.
Ministers will take key funding decisions and have strong levers to set direction and pursue government policy. Ministers will also have statutory powers to set long-term strategy and have powers to issue guidance and mandatory directions to Great British Railways on any matter at any time.
These statutory and administrative controls will be vital to ensuring that Great British Railways will be focussed on delivering value for taxpayers, passengers and freight customers. Parliament, including through Select Committees, will continue to hold Ministers to account for these key strategic functions. Parliament will also be able to hold Great British Railways leadership team to account for rail planning and operations.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the total cost to the public purse of the Transpennine Route Upgrade programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Transpennine Route Upgrade is a multi-billion pound programme, expected to be the largest investment in the existing rail network over the next 5 years. At this stage it is not possible to be specific about the total cost as we continue to work through design and development phases for the project. Funding of £589m was announced in July 2020, and an extra £317m in May 2021 to improve connectivity between Leeds, Manchester and York and commence early works, including electrification between York and Church Fenton. An update to the Business Case will be presented this Summer.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) value for money for the public purse of rolling stock procured since 2015 and (b) trajectory of leasing costs over the 30 to 35-year asset life of those trains.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Rolling stock is procured by the private sector to meet the needs of train operators as part of their bids in respect of the former franchise process and value-for-money will have been taken into account overall.
The costs of leasing rolling stock over its life is a matter for the owners and will take into account potential factors such as market competition, maintenance, refurbishment and other such costs. All factors will be considered when awarding contracts to make sure that the value-for-money is achieved for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Written Statement of 21 September 2020, HCWS460 on Rail update, if he will publish the tougher performance targets for operators under the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (ERMA) allow the Department to assess operator performance through either a qualitative based scorecard assessment or through the use of quantified targets.
All ERMA operators are currently assessed using a scorecard assessment. The scorecard criteria for the ERMA is more exacting than the EMA it replaces setting a higher bar for the level of performance an operator must achieve to earn a management fee. The scorecard criteria has already been published on the .gov.uk website.
The Department is currently evaluating the case for transitioning the remaining ERMA operators onto quantitative based targets from September of this year.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what contractual relationships his Department has entered into with (a) KPMG, (b) EY and (c) other external consultants to develop the proposals in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail published 20 May 2021; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
To develop proposals in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, the Department was supported by the following consultancies:
Ashurst; PWC; Rail Delivery Group; Eversheds Sutherland; Britain Thinks; Steer Davies Gleave; Jacobs; and Deloitte.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of additional staff required to administer a national system of concessionary rail contracts.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Transformation on the scale set out in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail cannot happen overnight. Government is setting up a Rail Transformation Programme within the Department for Transport and working with the rail sector to ensure a common understanding of the vision, establish the phases of delivery, and work collectively with the sector to design and implement this major project.
We expect to launch initial competitions for Passenger Service Contracts by the time the emergency recovery agreements end in 2022. Further detail will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the timeline for procurement by Great British Railways.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
We will replace franchising with a more commercially sustainable model. New Passenger Service Contracts will ensure that private sector innovation is targeted where is it is most needed, with private sector operators strongly incentivised to run high quality punctual services, manage costs and attract more passengers.
Transformation on this scale cannot happen overnight. Government is setting up a Rail Transformation Programme within the Department for Transport and working with the rail sector to ensure a common understanding of the vision, establish the phases of delivery, and work collectively with the sector to design and implement this major project.
An announcement on next steps will be made in due course.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish an updated Rail Network Enhancement Pipeline.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
We will publish an update to the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline in the coming months.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the total rail enhancement funding available to Network Rail for Control Period 6 is; what the actual spend is in years (a) one and (b) two; and what the forecast total spend is for years (i) three, (ii) four and (iii) five.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The budget for Rail Enhancements for England and Wales during Control Period 6 (CP6, 2019/20-23/24) is £9.4 Billion.
The actual spend in years requested was:
(a) one (2019/20) = £1,475 Million
(b) two (2020/21) = £1,477 Million
The latest forecast spend (Network Rail Period 1, 2021/22) for years requested is:
(i) Three (2021/22) = £1,952 Million
(ii) Four (2022/23) = £2,185 Million
(iii) Five (2023/24) = £2,320 Million
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what comparative data his Department holds on (a) deaths on the hard shoulder of existing motorways and (b) deaths on the lane that was previously a hard shoulder which is now used as a live running lane.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The STATS19 reporting system provides data on fatalities from road traffic accidents in Great Britain. Other than accidents which occur on a hard shoulder, STATS19 does not provide accurate and specific lane data information to be able to make this comparison.
The Secretary of State has asked the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to examine the evidence base for the relative safety of All Lane Running (ALR) motorways. That work will include looking at whether there any other data that could be used to enhance our understanding of the relative safety of ALR motorways.