Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will ensure that seat utilisation of London and North Eastern Railway services on key routes are taken into account before permitting Network Rail to issue a restricted capacity notice for the East Coast Main Line.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department regularly monitors levels of passenger demand on LNER services which help inform timetable planning decisions on the East Coast Mainline. Network capacity is a matter for Network Rail to assess according to their criteria.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with Network Rail on the (a) under-utilisation of some London North Eastern Railway services on the East Coast Main Line and (b) comparative potential merits of awarding those rails slots to open access services.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department regularly monitors levels of passenger demand on LNER services which help inform timetable planning decisions on the East Coast Mainline. Network capacity is a matter for Network Rail to assess according to their criteria.
The Secretary of State has not discussed awarding LNER services to Open Access operators with Network Rail, and has no plans to do so, but does continue to engage with Network Rail and the ORR on submitted Open Access applications in line with standard industry processes.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make (a) an estimate of the proportion of London and North Eastern Railway services with limited stops that operate with under 65% seat occupancy and (b) a comparative assessment of the potential merits of providing non-subsidised open access services with more calling points.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department continues to work with the rail industry to ensure the design of timetable meets stakeholders needs and makes effective use of infrastructure. If an Open Access operator wishes to compete with a contracted operator, such as LNER, it is free to apply to the ORR to do so, and ORR will assess the benefits and wider impacts to passengers and to taxpayers and decide upon the application in its role as independent regulator for the rail industry.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what is the percentage seat utilisation per mile on London and North Eastern Railway services to (a) York, (b) Leeds and (c) Newcastle.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
LNER services have a high rate of seat utilisation which is comparable to or better than other inter-city long distance franchised operators. However, seat utilisation varies throughout the day as LNER make effective use of track capacity by running longer trains which delivers more capacity during the peaks, which can lead to excess capacity on return legs where demand may be lower. Timetable obligations and fixed train sets means that there is sufficient capacity to meet demand, though is not possible to alter capacity in these quieter times to improve seat utilisation rates on these services.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress Network Rail has made on the cost reviews taking place to deliver power supply improvements on the (a) West and (b) East Coast Main Line.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is currently reviewing the position it has inherited on rail infrastructure and will consider how we address power supply issues. We will set out our plans in due course.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential role of newly approved open access services in supporting British train (a) manufacturing, (b) assembly and (c) supply chains.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Privately owned and run open access operators can play a significant role in supporting UK train manufacturers, assemblers and their UK supply chains and are an important source of potential orders, both for new and cascaded rolling stock. It remains a matter for each operator to decide when and how to source its own rolling stock.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what is the forecast subsidy to support London and North Eastern Railway in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
LNER’s subsidy forecasts for 2024/25 and 2025/26 are commercially sensitive. Details of LNER’s accounts from previous years can be found in the published statutory accounts.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help mitigate the impact of industrial action in December 2022 on the rail freight sector in transporting commodities over the Christmas period.
Answered by Huw Merriman
Government continues to work closely with Network Rail (NR) and Freight Operating Companies (FOCs) to ensure as much freight as possible is able to continue to move throughout the industrial action planned over the Christmas period. We are ensuring that critical freight flows are prioritised and we continue to monitor the impacts on specific sectors, through our engagement with other Government Departments.
During periods of industrial action, approximately 20% of rail freight services operate on strike days, returning to around 70% on the day after a strike.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to maximise opportunities for growing rail freight.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government remains committed to growing rail freight and unlocking the economic and environmental benefits rail freight can deliver.
Between 2014-2019, the Government invested over £235m in the Strategic Freight Network (SFN) and further investments are being confirmed and announced through the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP).
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Policy Exchange report entitled Charging up, published on 2 February 2021, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the number of electric vehicle charging points needed to meet demand across the UK are installed by 2030.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The UK has been a global front-runner in supporting provision of charging infrastructure along with private sector investment. Our vision is to have one of the best infrastructure networks in the world for electric vehicles (EVs), and we want chargepoints to be accessible, affordable and secure. The number of public chargepoints available has increased by 33% in the past 12 months from October 2020 to October 2021.
We will invest over £1.3 billion in accelerating the roll out of charging infrastructure over the next four years, targeting support on rapid chargepoints on motorways and major roads, and installing more on-street chargepoints near homes and workplaces to make charging as easy as refuelling a petrol or diesel car. Our grant schemes and the £400m Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund will see thousands more electric vehicle charge-points installed across the UK.
Government’s forthcoming EV Infrastructure Strategy will define our vision for the continued roll-out of a world-leading charging infrastructure network across the UK. The strategy will focus on how we will unlock the chargepoint rollout needed to enable the transition from early adoption to mass market uptake of EVs. We will set out our next steps to address barriers to private investment and level up charge point provision. The strategy will clearly establish Government’s expectations for the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the planning and deployment of charging infrastructure.
Alongside the Strategy, to increase confidence in the charging network and reduce range anxiety the Government is working with industry to simplify payment, ensure reliability and make chargepoint data freely available, helping drivers easily locate and access available chargepoints. In Spring 2021 we consulted on measures to improve the consumer experience of public charging and we will publish our response this winter and are seeking to lay legislation in the new year.