Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking with local government to tackle road congestion to aid the regeneration of town centres in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government works closely with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Transport for Greater Manchester to support local transport measures which are specifically designed to address congestion, promote alternative modes of transport to the car and regenerate town centres.
The Government is committed to ensuring that local highway infrastructure is well maintained to facilitate smoother and safer journeys, with better connections. The Secretary of State has recently announced a £1.7 billion Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund to improve roads, repair bridges and fill in millions of potholes. Greater Manchester’s share of this is £64.2 million.
In addition, Greater Manchester was awarded £312.5 million from the Transforming Cities Fund which is being used to fund schemes aimed at better connecting communities, in a sustainable way, and promoting cycling and walking as an alternative to using cars. In addition, over £660 million of Local Growth funding has been awarded to Greater Manchester in the three rounds of Growth deals to invest in transport schemes across the region and fund town centre improvements.
Most recently, Government has provided significant financial support to essential bus and Metrolink services throughout the Covid19 pandemic to increase public transport services for key workers and to help restart the economy. On 27 May, it was announced that Greater Manchester had also been given an indicative allocation of £3.2 million from the Emergency Active Travel Fund, to ensure that active travel is a viable alternative to using the car, as well as providing a safe space to do so in the town and district centres.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the viability of tram-train services in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department continues to engage with Transport for Greater Manchester on Tram Train development including sharing the lessons from the Tram Train pilot in Sheffield. We await more detail on their proposals.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding is available to Transport for Greater Manchester for the expansion of the Metrolink network.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government is committed to investing in infrastructure and levelling up across the county and has developed the Transforming Cities Fund to improve public transport with a focus on trains, trams and buses. Greater Manchester will receive a total of £312.5 million in Mayoral Transforming Cities Fund allocations. Of this, £83 million has been allocated to provide additional tram capacity on the Metrolink network through the procurement of 27 additional Metrolink trams and associated supporting infrastructure. In addition, a further £4.2 billion of funding is planned for improving transport infrastructure in major cities. More detail on future funding levels for cities will be announced later this year
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to site any new railway station for Leigh in Wigan borough.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Government’s policy is that it is for local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to determine the best way to meet local transport needs and take the first step in evaluating benefits and prioritising available resources. It would be for Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) to develop such plans and secure funding.
TfGM is currently carrying out work to evaluate the feasibility of potential new rail stations and Metrolink stops in Greater Manchester, with a view to developing more detailed plans for a small number of stations that are likely to deliver the greatest value for money. Further details can be found at https://tfgm.com/2040/delivery-plan-2020-2025
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of bus journey usage in Greater Manchester in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The table below shows the number of bus passenger journeys in each year since 2009/10 for Greater Manchester.
Passenger journeys (millions) on local bus services by local authority: Greater Manchester ITA, from 2009/10:
Year | Greater Manchester |
2009/10 | 220.8 |
2010/11 | 216.9 |
2011/12 | 205.9 |
2012/13 | 208.5 |
2013/14 | 216.0 |
2014/15 | 213.0 |
2015/16 | 205.0 |
2016/17 | 201.4 |
Source: DfT Local bus passenger journeys, BUS0109a
Greater Manchester has an extensive public transport system and over a similar time period, passenger journeys on the Manchester Metrolink light rail network increased by 22 million from 19.2 million in 2010/11 to 41.2 million in 2017/18.
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.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department plans to make available to support the expansion of the Metrolink tram network in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Jesse Norman
It is for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to decide how to fund any future extensions to the Manchester Metrolink system. This could include bidding for central Government funding. GMCA has already received funding from the Local Large Majors Fund to help develop a business case for a short extension of the Airport Line to serve the expanded terminal. They plan to bid for scheme funding by the end of the year. The bid will be in competition with a number of other schemes and decisions on which will be funded are to be taken in the New Year.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what account has been taken of the rail journey times between Birchwood and Manchester when deciding on the future location of operations carried out by his Department at Birchwood, Warrington.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Manchester city centre location will help DWP attract and retain talent in the North West, making a real difference to designing, developing and delivering future customer services. We want to ensure that our staff can travel easily between our corporate centre hubs around the country and be able to work closely with colleagues in other central government departments. We also want to ensure that our range of customers can easily get to our office by public transport to help us test new digital services which are in development. With a Metrolink tram stop within a few yards and both Piccadilly and Victoria Stations just 15 minutes’ walk away, the office is within easy daily reach by public transport.
Our office at Birchwood currently employs just over 300 people, approximately 80% of whom live outside the Warrington area and commute to the business park by car or train.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to announce any further successful bids to the latest competition round of the Local Majors Fund in addition to those announced in the Autumn Statement 2016 transport projects policy paper.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Secretary of State has today announced the remaining successful bids from the current round of the Large Local Majors Fund. The full list of successful schemes, including those announced in the Autumn Statement is as follows:-
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to provide funding for the expansion of the Manchester Metrolink after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Government has provided significant levels of funding over recent years to help extend the Manchester Metrolink system. More recently Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has funded further extensions from its own resources and only this month the Secretary of State authorised TfGM’s application to construct an extension through Trafford Park.
TfGM is welcome to bid for further funding through the Local Growth Fund. In addition the Department is currently assessing bids from TfGM and other local authorities for development funding for large schemes which includes further extensions of the Metrolink system. Funding will be available to construct those schemes which are successful in this competition.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2016 to Question 39519, how much was provided to which projects under funding for (a) Highways England capital expenditure, (b) major transport schemes in local authorities and (c) other rail enhancements.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Details of the projects that will receive funding from the £4.8bn Highways England capital expenditure is available through the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/road-investment-strategy-plans-summary-of-assumptions
A breakdown of the funding for major transport schemes in local authorities is provided below:
Major Transport Schemes in Local Authorities | £m |
A164 Humber Bridge to Beverley Improvements | 10 |
A6 to Manchester Airport Relief Road | 230 |
Access York Phase 1 (Park & Ride) | 23 |
Bedale/Aiskew/Leeming Bar Bypass (North Yorkshire) | 34 |
Beverley Southern Relief Road | 22 |
Crewe Green Link Road | 26 |
Heysham to M6 Link Road (Lancashire) | 124 |
Leeds Inner Relief Road Maintenance | 25 |
Leeds Public Transport (formerly allocated to Leeds New Generation Transport) | 250 |
Leeds Rail Growth (Kirkstall Forge and Apperley Bridge stations) | 16 |
Leeds Station Southern Entrance | 20 |
Manchester Cross City Bus | 43 |
Manchester Metrolink Extensions - Second City Crossing | 165 |
Mersey Gateway Bridge | 211 |
Morpeth Northern Bypass | 30 |
Pennine Reach (Blackburn) | 40 |
Rochdale Interchange | 12 |
South Yorkshire Bus Rapid Transit North | 36 |
Sunderland Strategic Corridor (New Wear Crossing) | 118 |
Thornton to Switch Island (Sefton) | 18 |
Todwick Crossroads Improvement (Rotherham) | 14 |
White Rose Way Improvement Scheme (Doncaster) | 17 |
TOTAL | 1,484 |
The funding shown is the lifetime public sector capital cost of each scheme funded or planned to be funded during the period 2015/16 to 2020/21
Other rail enhancements include over £1bn we are investing to upgrade rail infrastructure in the North of England. This includes a substantial electrification programme and other track, station and signalling improvements - to increase capacity and the number of services and making journeys faster and more reliable.