Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to replace the plug-in car grant to encourage the manufacture and sale of low emission vehicles.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Our mission is to put the UK at the forefront of the design, manufacture and uptake of zero emission vehicles. We are investing more than £1.5bn between 2015 and 2021 to support this. The plug-in car grant continues to support the purchase of the cleanest vehicles and will remain in place until at least 2020. Our Road to Zero Strategy confirmed that consumer incentives in some form will continue to play a role beyond 2020.
The government recently announced company car tax rates out to 2022-23. To accelerate the shift to zero emission cars, all zero emission models will pay no company car tax in 2020-21, 1% in 2021-22 before returning to the planned 2% rate in 2022-23 – a significant tax saving for employees and employers.
Alongside other measures in the government’s Road to Zero strategy, including support schemes for the installation of charge points, the UK government’s support package adds up to one of the most comprehensive worldwide. As part of the upcoming spending review, government will be setting out funding and other measures for future years.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many charging points for electric vehicles there are in England; and how many of those are located in each region.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Figures on the total number of electric vehicle chargepoints are unavailable. Members of the public and businesses are able to install chargepoints without government support, and information on these are not routinely collected. Chargepoints that do receive government funding can be decommissioned or removed without notifying Government. The charging point platform Zap-map reports that, as at July 16th, there are 19,939 publicly available connectors in England, with the numbers in each region as follows:
Region | Number of chargepoint connectors | Percentage within England |
East Midlands | 1,299 | 7% |
East of England | 1,618 | 8% |
Greater London | 6,417 | 32% |
North East | 1,045 | 5% |
North West | 1,807 | 9% |
South East | 3,239 | 16% |
South West | 1,903 | 10% |
West Midlands | 1,388 | 7% |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 1,223 | 6% |
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will provide the (a) punctuality and (b) reliability data for the Thameslink service between Bedford and London stations for each month of 2019 to date.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department holds performance data on a rail period (13 four-week periods per year) basis, rather than according to calendar months.
For punctuality we hold the data as the Public Performance Measure (PPM), the percentage of trains arriving at their destination within five minutes of schedule. For reliability we hold the data as Cancellations and Significant Lateness, the percentage of services that are cancelled or delayed by more than thirty minutes.
The periodic results for the Thameslink route between Bedford and London, covering all days of the week in both directions, are contained in the table below. This does include the vast majority of services that passengers from Bedford would use, except for a small number of services which stop at all stations south of St Albans, which are counted in a separate ‘metro’ category. As this is data for the entire service group, it will include some trains that did not run the full length of the route.
Period | PPM | CaSL |
9 December 2018 – 5 January 2019 | 85.6% | 4.4% |
6 January 2019 – 2 February 2019 | 83.0% | 4.5% |
3 February 2019 – 2 March 2019 | 85.9% | 4.0% |
3 March 2019 – 31 March 2019 | 83.7% | 5.8% |
1 April 2019 – 27 April 2019 | 88.4% | 4.2% |
28 April 2019 – 25 May 2019 | 86.4% | 3.0% |
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to reinstate East Midland Train services to Bedford.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Peak calls on East Midlands services have been removed temporarily while we deliver the biggest upgrade to the Midland Main Line since it was completed in 1870, which will help deliver enhanced services from 2020.
From December 2020, once the Midland Main Line upgrade is complete, passengers at Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford, Luton and Luton Airport Parkway will benefit from a new, dedicated East Midlands service into London St Pancras.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to ensure that (a) the rail industry is ready for the timetable changes due to be implemented on 9 December 2018 and (b) those changes will be delivered without adverse effects on passengers.
Answered by Andrew Jones
At the Department’s request, Andrew Haines (Network Rail CEO) led industry in reviewing plans for the December 2018 timetable in light of the disruption seen in May 2018. The rail industry advised reductions in the scale of the planned changes for the December 2018 timetable, specifically to reduce the risk of disruption for passengers.
In addition, the rail industry has put in place additional assurance processes to test that plans for delivery of the timetable are robust and the Secretary of State has received on-going assurance from industry leaders on its readiness for the implementation of timetable change on 09 December 2018.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of the potential effect of the proposed works to Bromham Road bridge on journey times for passengers travelling on the replacement bus service from Wellingborough to Bedford.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
No assessment has currently been made. Until all approvals have been granted, the timing for the proposed work remains unknown to enable a full assessment of any journey impact, which we would expect East Midlands Trains to undertake.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many train services from Bedford to London have not stopped at West Hampstead since 20 May 2018; and what discussions he has had with Govia Thameslink on those services no longer stopping at West Hampstead.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
As part of the new timetable, West Hampstead Thameslink is now classified as a metro station and Bedford as a main line station. The metro services that will call at West Hampstead during peak times will start from St Albans and Luton.
A key part of the strategy for the new timetable is to deliver capacity and performance benefits by separating main line and metro services.
The Department for Transport worked with the rail industry to specify the details of this timetable. This was consulted on three times by Govia Thameslink Railway, as the operator of Thameslink services, in one of the largest ever consultations to take place on the railways.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on its negotiations with East Midlands Trains on compensation payments as a result of peak-time trains not stopping at Bedford.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
In the case of journeys from north of Bedford during the peaks when trains are not stopping at Bedford, East Midlands Trains has introduced a temporary 50% reduction for season ticket holders and there is also a 25% reduction on anytime fares for those passengers who are affected by the introduction of the rail replacement bus service for the duration of this operation. Passengers who have already bought a season ticket for travel to Bedford should contact CSC.manager@eastmidlandstrains.co.uk to arrange a partial refund. The discount will automatically be applied to tickets bought after 20th May 2018.
In the case of journeys between Bedford and London during the peaks, Thameslink are providing two fast services per hour to mitigate the loss of EMT services. These services come with an equivalent journey time to the fast EMT services which have been removed. Each of these services provide direct access to Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars and London Bridge.
This is a temporary arrangement whilst we deliver the biggest upgrade to the Midland Main Line since it was completed in 1870 and which will help deliver enhanced services from 2020.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to reintroduce peak-time East Midland Trains services to Bedford until the problems with the timetable introduced in May 2018 are resolved.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Department for Transport officials are currently working with East Midlands Trains and other rail industry parties to understand whether or not it would feasible to reintroduce East Midlands Trains services that call at Luton and Bedford in the peak hours. Further information will be provided when this work has been concluded.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the May 2018 timetable changes on overcrowding on rail services at Bedford station.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Department for Transport does not hold data on train cancellations and delays to this level of detail.
It is currently too early to make a detailed assessment of any cost implications of the delays and cancellations since the timetable change. What is clear is that passengers on GTR are facing totally unsatisfactory levels of service and it is the Department’s number one priority to restore reliability to an acceptable level as soon as possible.
We are assessing whether GTR met their contractual obligations in the planning and delivery of this timetable change, and whether these issues could have been reasonably foreseen and different action taken to prevent the high levels of disruption passengers are experiencing. If it is found that GTR are materially in breach of their contractual obligations, the Department will take the appropriate enforcement action against them.
On GTR services, passengers are encouraged to apply to their train operator for Delay Repay compensation for affected journeys. GTR passengers can claim delay repay for delays over 15 minutes.
Earlier this week, the Secretary of State announced a special compensation scheme for GTR passengers. It is to be funded by the rail industry and will ensure regular rail customers receive appropriate redress for the disruption they have experienced. The industry will set out more detail of the eligibility requirements and how season ticket holders can claim.
The Department for Transport cannot currently provide an assessment of the impact of the May 2018 timetable changes on overcrowding at Bedford station, as performance of the new timetable has been too unstable to allow for an accurate assessment to be made.
The service provided since the start of the new timetable has been unacceptable and it is the Department’s number one priority to restore reliability on services at Bedford to an acceptable level as soon as possible.