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Written Question
Railways: WiFi
Tuesday 22nd January 2019

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the quality of Wi-Fi services available to rail passengers as required under the terms of rail franchise agreements.

Answered by Andrew Jones

The department is monitoring the roll out of wi-ifi equipment being fitted to trains as part of their franchise agreement. In addition, Transport Focus surveys passenger satisfaction over a range of issues, including the availability of wi-fi.


Written Question
Railways: Mobile Phones
Tuesday 22nd January 2019

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the level of mobile coverage provided to rail passengers.

Answered by Andrew Jones

Ofcom are collecting data on the signal strength available to rail passengers. We expect a report to be published this calendar year.


Written Question
Railways: Mobile Phones
Tuesday 22nd January 2019

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions his Department has had with train operating companies on the delivery of mobile connectivity for rail passengers.

Answered by Andrew Jones

The department continues to be in regular dialogue about mobile connectivity for rail passengers with Train Operating Companies.


Written Question
Roads: Tyne and Wear
Tuesday 20th November 2018

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Budget 2018, how much of the the £420 million to be provided to councils to fix potholes and carry out other road repairs will be allocated to (a) South Tyneside Council and (b) Gateshead Council.

Answered by Jesse Norman

From the £420 million for road maintenance announced in the Budget 2018, the Department for Transport has allocated (a) South Tyneside Council with £0.686 million and (b) Gateshead council with £1.2 million. This funding was provided to authorities on 13 November 2018.

This funding is in addition to just under £6.2 billion the Department are allocating to highway authorities between 2015 and 2021 for local highways maintenance, including £296 million through the pothole action fund.


Written Question
Bus Services: Tyne and Wear
Monday 10th September 2018

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the trends in the (a) quantity and (b) frequency of bus services in (i) Jarrow Constituency (ii) South Tyneside and (iii) Tyne and Wear since 2010.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

The department does not hold any data on the quantity and frequency of bus services for Jarrow Constituency and South Tyneside, the lowest level geography available is upper tier local authority, in this instance Tyne and Wear.

Data on vehicle miles on local bus services by local authority including Tyne and Wear is available for the years 2013/14 to 2016/17 in the data table BUS0208 in the Annual Bus Statistics for each respective year at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-statistics#published-in-2018 .

Bus operators must register their services with a traffic commissioner in the traffic area in which the service operates. The Traffic Commissioners’ annual reports provide information on the number of live local bus registrations in the North Western Traffic Area as at 31 March of each year; this information can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/traffic-commissioners-annual-reports. The report for the year ending March 2010 can be found here: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20131113220328/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-commissioners-annual-reports

Local authorities are best placed to manage changes in their local bus network. The Bus Services Act 2017 gives them additional powers to do so through partnership working with commercial operators. It also gives Mayoral Combined authorities the automatic right to franchise their bus network and the Department for Transport can also grant these powers to other local authorities who make a satisfactory business case. The Department is also developing regulations to require bus operators and local transport authorities to provide data, in open formats, about local bus services including routes and timetable data; fares and ticket data; and real time information. We are working closely with industry to develop the regulations and it is intended the requirements will be phased in over the next few years.


Written Question
Bus Services: Tyne and Wear
Monday 10th September 2018

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his department has spent on bus services in (a) Jarrow Constituency (b) South Tyneside and (c) Tyne and Wear in each year since 2010.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

Up until 31 December 2013 Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) was paid directly to bus operators and was not split between commercially run or subsidised bus services. We are therefore unable to provide figures for this period. From 1 January 2014 local authorities have received funding equivalent to the level of BSOG which would otherwise have been paid to operators for running subsidised services in 2014. Details of the amounts paid to local authorities each year can be found on the “Payments to Local Authorities” tab of the relevant spreadsheets published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-services-grants-and-funding#bsog-spend


Written Question
Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive: Finance
Monday 10th September 2018

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has allocated to Nexus for (a) commercial bus services and (b) supported bus services in each year since 2010.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

Up until 31 December 2013 Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) was paid directly to bus operators and was not split between commercially run or subsidised bus services. We are therefore unable to provide figures for this period. From 1 January 2014 local authorities have received funding equivalent to the level of BSOG which would otherwise have been paid to operators for running subsidised services in 2014. Details of the amounts paid to local authorities each year can be found on the “Payments to Local Authorities” tab of the relevant spreadsheets published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-services-grants-and-funding#bsog-spend


Written Question
Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive: Finance
Friday 7th September 2018

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has allocated to Nexus in each year since 2010.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Department has provided Nexus Metro with significant funding every year. The specific amounts covering capital and revenue funding are:

2010/2011

£ 60,641,372

2011/2012

£ 59,594,546

2012/2013

£ 57,787,939

2013/2014

£ 57,222,753

2014/2015

£ 52,423,624

2015/2016

£ 57,057,851

2016/2017

£ 56,771,798

2017/2018

£ 49,311,586

2018/2019 *

£ 49,248,356

* Grant claimed based upon estimated figure

Note that the grant payable since 2010/11 has been subject to indexation and taking account of expected efficiencies.

Furthermore, in the 2017 Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced a £337m direct grant to deliver a new fleet of trains for the Tyne and Wear Metro.


Written Question
Tyne and Wear Metro: Rolling Stock
Wednesday 25th July 2018

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has held with Nexus on the proposed replacement of the Tyne and Wear Metro train fleet.

Answered by Jesse Norman

In the Autumn 2017 Budget the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a direct grant of £337m to invest in new fleet for the Tyne & Wear Metro. Nexus provide the Department for Transport with regular updates on this procurement work as part of its regular reporting. Nexus are responsible for the management of the procurement, delivery and rollout of the new fleet of trains.


Written Question
Crossrail Line and High Speed 2 Railway Line: North East
Tuesday 24th July 2018

Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the benefits of (a) Crossrail and (b) High Speed 2 are for North East England.

Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone

Both Crossrail and High Speed 2 will provide benefits that reach far beyond the towns and regions directly served by the new lines.

Specifically:

a) The Crossrail project is estimated to generate at least £42 billion for the UK economy, and is generating enough work to support the equivalent of 55,000 full time jobs throughout the project and its supply chain all around the UK. In total, approximately 62% of suppliers are based outside London. A number of these suppliers have bases in the North East including Mammoet, who supplied cranes and specialist equipment to help assemble the tunnelling machines, and Cleveland Bridge, based in Darlington, who supplied steel to Crossrail sites.

b) On HS2 with respect to the North East specifically, the Secretary of State has confirmed the connection to the ECML at Church Fenton, east of Leeds. This link will help ensure that the Eastern Leg of the HS2 route is fully integrated into the wider rail network. On current plans the link will be used by HS2 services to York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle from both Birmingham and London, delivering improved connectivity and journey times between those locations.