Wendy Morton
Main Page: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)Department Debates - View all Wendy Morton's debates with the Department for Transport
(1 week, 1 day ago)
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Simon Lightwood
The Government already invest £700 million in the national concessionary travel scheme in order to fund those bus passes, and at the last Budget we announced over £1 billion of funding to support buses. We changed the formula for BSIP—bus service improvement plans—away from the competitive “Hunger Games” style contests under the previous Government. The hon. Member’s local area will have received funding and it is able to use that funding to go above and beyond what is set on a national level.
Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)
The Secretary of State for Transport (Heidi Alexander)
Open access operators will continue to have a place in our reformed Great British railways. We have supported new proposals from Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway, and existing track access rights will be honoured. Open access can provide benefits, but it must not come at the cost of better services for passengers and better value for taxpayers.
Wendy Morton
In her recent letter to the Office of Rail and Road, the Transport Secretary appeared to push against open access agreements, yet last week, as she has mentioned today, the Government signalled their intention to support the request to license the Wrexham to London Euston line, which will come through Aldridge in my constituency. Will the Transport Secretary clarify her position on the Wrexham to Euston line, particularly in regard to the inclusion of Aldridge train station? As she will be aware, thanks to the Labour mayor, the funding for that station has been raided and put into his pet projects.
Heidi Alexander
I appreciate the right hon. Lady’s commitment to making the case for a new station at Aldridge, but I gently point out to her that in the 14 years of her party’s Government, including her own stint in the Department for Transport, the station failed to materialise. The West Midlands combined authority has had to prioritise the delivery of schemes that are in construction. That seems to me to be a reasonable approach, but I appreciate that she will continue to make the case for her own station.