Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Government’s decision to end SouthEastern Railway’s franchise, what assessment his Department has made of the future viability of the (a) Thameslink, (b) Southern and (c) Great Northern franchises.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
At this stage I have no reason to believe this activity is part of a wider-industry practice. My officials will be examining the outcome of the on-going investigation and will consider what further steps may be appropriate. The outcome of the investigation will also be a relevant factor in respect of decisions regarding the future of the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise. The Operator of Last Resort is always available if required in accordance with our statutory obligations.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the total level of expenditure on Emergency Recovering Measures Agreements for train operating companies is since October 2020.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Train operators provide management accounts to government, and are paid by government, once per rail period and there are 13 such periods in each financial year. Reliable data therefore cannot be produced from 1 October exactly as the accounting dates do not align.
However, periodic data on operational support payments made to each franchised operator from 1 March 2020 to 6 February 2021, is published at the link below:
Financial Year 2020-21 Rail Period 7 started on 20 September 2020, and 1 October 2020 fell within it.
The nine ERMA train operators include: C2C (Essex Thameside), South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, West Midlands Trains, Greater Anglia (East Anglia), GTR (Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern), Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Railways, and Avanti West Coast (West Coast Partnership).
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will announce the process for securing a private sector development partner for the Southern Railway Link to Heathrow Airport.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Department remains committed that the Southern Access to Heathrow scheme, formerly known as Southern Rail Link to Heathrow, should be a ‘pathfinder’ project with increased levels of market involvement.
Government intends to provide further guidance to the market regarding the proposed commercial direction and next steps, including the process for selection of a development partner in Summer 2021.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Crewe station will be ready for the arrival of Phase 2a of HS2.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Crewe is a vital railway asset and a strategically important location on the rail network, but as the existing infrastructure is complex, the solution has to be right for the arrival of HS2. In March 2018, the Secretary of State confirmed the Government’s support for the Crewe Hub vision, and announced that plans for HS2 Phase 2a will include 400m platforms at Crewe station to allow for the splitting and joining of HS2 services. In addition, a more efficient design is proposed for the platform on the Manchester independent lines and a change to the design of the southern connection to the HS2 lines.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans the Government has to support the realisation of the Crewe Hub vision.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Crewe is a vital railway asset and a strategically important location on the rail network, but as the existing infrastructure is complex, the solution has to be right for the arrival of HS2. In March 2018, the Secretary of State confirmed the Government’s support for the Crewe Hub vision, and announced that plans for HS2 Phase 2a will include 400m platforms at Crewe station to allow for the splitting and joining of HS2 services. In addition, a more efficient design is proposed for the platform on the Manchester independent lines and a change to the design of the southern connection to the HS2 lines.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what financial support his Department is providing to (a) GTR Southern Rail and (b) the rail industry more widely during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The total payments made to all train operators under franchise contracts with Department (including those in public ownership) from 1 March to 20 September 2020 was £4.07billion. Of this, £636million relates to the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise (i.e. GTR). Full payment data for this period has been published on www.gov.uk and we will continue to release periodic updates there in future.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made with the deployment by Network Rail of the Hubble vegetation management tool since it was awarded First of a Kind funding by his Department through Innovate UK in 2019.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Hubble was funded and supported by Network Rail’s Anglia Route and trialled on its Southern Route. Other Network Rail routes are able to use Hubble or other technology solutions as appropriate.
Hubble was a recipient of First of a Kind (FOAK) funding from my Department. Funding under FOAK is not a guarantee that products will be taken into service. Network Rail and operators determine which products best meet their operational needs.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the emergency funding provided to the national railways, whether he has asked Southern Railway to deliver an assessment of the effect of demand on sustainability, including modelling of medium-term service level requirements against possible demand scenarios after covid-19 travel restrictions are lifted.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Rail operators continue to assess local demand regularly to deliver the services passengers need. We continue to work closely with Govia Thameslink Railway (the operator of Southern services) as they develop future timetable proposals to make sure we strike the right balance between running the maximum levels of service that can be resourced reliably to meet demand and protecting taxpayers’ best interests.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents of train delay were attributed to vegetation on each Network Rail Region in (a) 2019 and (b) 2020 to date.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Office for Rail and Road (ORR) publish summary statistics on the number of delay minutes and their causes. These statistics can be found here:
The following data produced by ORR shows the number of incidents on the railway attributed to vegetation management failure in 2019 and 2020 (to date) by Network Rail Region:
Network Rail Region | 2019* | 2020 (to date)* |
Eastern | 174 | 145 |
North West & Central | 147 | 112 |
Scotland | 67 | 95 |
Southern | 129 | 188 |
Wales & Western | 193 | 115 |
*This data is aggregated from data for (4-weekly) railway periods and therefore does not align precisely with calendar years. 2019 data represents the time period from 06/01/2019 to 04/01/2020. 2020 data is from 05/01/2020 to 12/10/2020 (railway period 7, latest data available).
Source: Network Rail data
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken, if any, to develop a process to select a partner for a Southern Railway link to Heathrow Airport following the recommendation in the report by Nichols and Agilia Southern Railway Link to Heathrow: market sounding, published on 19 December 2018; and what plans they have to establish a timescale for this process.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Market Sounding Findings Report was published in December 2018, indicating significant interest for development and financing of Southern Access to Heathrow, the scheme formerly known as Southern Rail Link to Heathrow (SRLtH).
However, the responses to the Market Sounding did not build a feasible case for a Market Led approach to a Southern Access to Heathrow which could progress without government support such as direct subsidy or infrastructure usage guarantees.
Following the publication of this report, Government has undertaken work to fulfil the recommendations set out in the report. The recommendations were that the Department should provide greater detail on minimum requirements and objectives for a SAtH scheme and that the Department should consider an appropriate commercial model for early market involvement.
In November 2019, following extensive stakeholder engagement, the Department published eight Strategic Objectives for SAtH, setting out a narrative and minimum requirements for each.
The Department has also been working alongside external commercial advisers to develop an appropriate ‘market involved’ commercial model for the delivery of this scheme. We remain committed that a Southern Access to Heathrow should be a ‘Pathfinder Project’ with increased levels of market involvement and that this approach will likely be in the form of a development partner or development manager.
Following Ministerial approval and alignment to the anticipated HM Treasury Infrastructure Finance Review, the Department intends to provide further guidance regarding the commercial approach for SAtH in early 2021.