Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times the Wales Rail Board has met since it was established.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Wales Rail Board was inaugurated in March 2022 and has met on a total of six occasions to date.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on meeting the government's target of delivering a net zero railway by 2050.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to meeting our target of a net zero railway by 2050. Since 2010, more than 1,200 miles of electrification has been delivered in Great Britain, including almost 800 miles in England and Wales in the last seven years. Government is also investing in further electrification schemes including electrification of TransPennine Route between Manchester, Leeds and York and completion of the electrification of the Midland Main Line to Sheffield and Derby. Since the start of 2019, the Government has also contributed over £12.5 million to 33 First of a Kind (FoaK) projects that will help decarbonise the railway or reduce harmful emissions.
Network Rail has set the standard as the first railway organisation in the world to set science-based targets to the most ambitious target of limiting emissions from its own operations to a 1.5°C warming scenario.
We are working with the Great British Railways Transition Team to bring forward options to decarbonise the whole network, in line with our net zero targets, for Government to carefully consider in terms of overall deliverability and affordability.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of passenger demand for train services across (a) England, (b) Wales, and (c) Scotland.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Annual statistics on passenger rail usage at national and region level are published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). These include journeys within and between England, Scotland, and Wales. The latest statistical release provides estimates for April 2021 to March 2022: Regional rail usage (orr.gov.uk)
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on plans for a new Swansea Parkway train station.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We are working with Transport for Wales, Welsh Government and local authorities to develop plans for better connectivity within South West Wales, including new station provision. The Government has established a Wales Rail Board with the Welsh Government, to develop a strategic programme and prioritisation for the future progression of rail schemes in Wales.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with (a) National Rail, (b) the Welsh Government and (c) Transport for Wales on the provision of relief lines between Newport and Cardiff Central to facilitate the addition of services and stations in (i) St.Mellows and (ii) other areas.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Upgrading the south Wales relief lines has been identified as a high priority by the Wales Rail Board comprising my department, Welsh Government and Transport for Wales and I recently authorised Network Rail to undertake further development work. Progression of the proposed Cardiff Parkway station at St Mellons is subject to the outcome of a Welsh Government planning decision.
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, if he will publish data providing a breakdown of the number of rail journey cancellations in England and Wales for each year between 2010 and 2023.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Statistics on the number of trains part and fully cancelled are published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) - Table 3123 - Trains planned and cancellations by operator and cause
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has he made on decarbonising rail freight.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We are committed to working with industry and the private sector to decarbonise the rail network. We are working with the Great British Railways Transition Team to provide costed options for Government to consider in terms of deliverability and affordability, including options for rail freight.
Electrification is important in our decarbonisation programme. Since 2010, over 1,200 miles of electrification has been delivered in Great Britain, including almost 800 miles in England and Wales since 2016.
The Government is undertaking a number of initiatives to grow rail freight, recognising the environmental benefits it delivers, including setting a long-term rail freight growth target, which will be announced later this year.
We encourage and incentivise modal shift from road to rail by allocating £20m per year to the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme. In 2022/23, the scheme removed the need for around 900,000 HGV journeys, saving almost 40,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average level of overcrowding is on each rail service.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department collects and publishes crowding related data for selected midweek services arriving or departing from major English and Welsh cities during a 12 week period in autumn. Full details of the cities and stations for which there were crowded services are presented in the most recent publication and in the associated 2022 Data Tables, here:
Rail passenger numbers and crowding on weekdays in major cities in England and Wales: 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The service-level passenger load information collected by the Department is considered commercially sensitive by the operators who own the data and therefore the information is held by the Department under a duty of confidentiality.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to safeguard (a) digital signal systems and (b) other digital critical infrastructure on the rail network from (i) cyber attacks and (ii) failures which risk safety.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport takes transport security seriously. We work closely with industry to identify and mitigate security and safety risks. The Secretary of State for Transport has a regulatory role as competent authority under the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018 and is therefore responsible for ensuring cyber security standards are met by Operators of Essential Services across the rail network in England, Wales and Scotland.
DfT encourages industry to follow guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre to ensure digital systems and infrastructure are resilient to cyber-attacks and safety failures.
Network Rail, Great Britain's mainline railway infrastructure manager, are charged with the management of signalling and other systems that are critical to the safe and efficient delivery of the rail service. Network Rail have a fully embedded security management system that provides the systems, processes, resources and policies to effectively counter cyber threats, focusing on prevention and protection of systems accompanied with a strong monitoring and response capability. In addition to compliance with the NIS regulations, Network Rail adopt best practice from international standards such as ISO27011 [information security management systems] and IEC 62443 [cyber security for industrial automation and control systems] and were part of the drafting group for the forthcoming IEC 63452 "Cyber Security for Railway Applications" standard, recognising their leading role in railway cyber security.
Digital critical infrastructure on the railway, including digital signalling systems (ETCS), are failsafe by design. Digital signalling offers many additional safety benefits over and above conventional coloured light signalling systems.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, when he plans to announce upgrades to the South Wales mainline railway.
Answered by David T C Davies - Secretary of State for Wales
In February 2023, the UK Government announced £2.7 million funding for a study to improve transport connectivity by developing options for new stations and services on the South Wales Main Line, including the development of 5 brand new stations between Cardiff and Severn Tunnel.
In addition, a proposed upgrade to the South Wales relief lines is being progressed to a full business case by Network Rail for consideration by the Department for Transport.
The UK Government has committed over £390 million to rail improvements in Wales in recent years.