Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of Avanti West Coast’s management of Stockport railway station.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Avanti West Coast (AWC) is responsible for the day-to-day management of Stockport Station, which includes staffing, facilities management and cleaning. The Department meets with AWC regularly to discuss these responsibilities and to ensure any issues are addressed as soon as possible for passengers.
Responsibility for repairs to the structure of the property lies with the station’s landlord, Network Rail. AWC works with Network Rail seeking improvements on behalf of passengers where this is required.
Operators are also required to achieve customer experience targets across a range of measures, including at stations. These standards are regularly and independently inspected via the Service Quality Regime and there are accountability and financial consequences for failure.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department plans to refurbish Stockport railway station.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Avanti West Coast and Network Rail hold the responsibility for the operations, maintenance, and refurbishment activities at Stockport station. I understand that the lift on platform 0 and the station entrance doors have recently been refurbished. More substantial work is being planned for the underpass in due course.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to require train operating companies to accept cash payments for onboard catering purchases.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Catering services are a commercial matter for each train operating company. Train operators are responsible for considering the equality impacts of operational changes such as to catering payment methods, and are expected by the Department for Transport to take local needs into account.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department plans to provide funding for step-free access at (a) Brinnington Station and (b) Heaton Chapel Station.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are carefully considering the best approach to the Access for All programme. This Government is committed to improving the accessibility of the railway and recognise the social and economic benefits this brings to communities.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to require railway (a) ticket offices and (b) electronic vending machines to accept cash payments.
Answered by Huw Merriman
Ticket offices already accept multiple forms of payments including cash and some Ticket Vending Machines also accept cash. We will ensure that all passengers are able to continue to use cash to purchase tickets as work to modernise the retail and passenger experience at stations continues.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the number of electric vehicle charging points in Stockport constituency.
Answered by Anthony Browne
As of 1st April 2024, there were 34 total public electric vehicle charging devices in the Stockport constituency, 18 of which were rated 50kW or above, according to the electric vehicle charging platform Zapmap.
The £381 million Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund will support local authorities such as Stockport Council in England to work with industry and transform the availability of EV charging for drivers without off-street parking.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Avanti West Coast’s management of Euston railway station.
Answered by Huw Merriman
No assessment has been made. Euston railway station is managed by Network Rail, not Avanti West Coast.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average time taken by his Department to respond to a freedom of information request was in each of the last five years; how many and what proportion of such requests his Department did not answer within the target time in each of those years; and how many such requests to his Department had not been answered within the target time as of 1 May 2024.
Answered by Anthony Browne
The department does not record the time spent in answering individual Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and is therefore unable to calculate an average time for answering such requests in any of the last five years.
Statistical information on the Department’s performance in answering FOI requests over the last five years is published by the Cabinet Office at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.
These statistics, which cover all Government departments, include the number that were not answered within the target time. They are published by calendar year, with the latest year being 2023. The annual statistics for 2024 will be published in April 2025 but quarterly statistics may be available sooner.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has had discussions with Avanti West Coast on the closure of the ticket office at Euston railway station.
Answered by Huw Merriman
The Department is aware of the current temporary closure of the ticket office at Euston station arising from a bird infestation. Network Rail is responsible for managing Euston and is working on a remedy for staff and passengers.
The Government has been clear to the industry that no ticket offices should close.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data his Department holds on (a) expected future rail passenger demand and (b) the potential factors affecting future rail passenger demand.
Answered by Huw Merriman
In line with our published guidance, the Department has developed a range of rail demand forecasts in both the medium and long term. The Department considers a wide range of evidence for our project appraisals and policy decisions.
There are many economic and socio-demographic factors which potentially affect future rail passenger demand. These are detailed within the Department’s Transport Analysis Guidance, published online.