Rail
Services
(Tiverton and Honiton) (LD):
What steps he is taking to improve rail services.
The Minister of State, Department for Transport (): The Government are committed to reforming the
railways and ensuring that they are customer focused and
commercially led, with the creation of Great British
Railways to bring together infrastructure, operations
and oversight of whole-industry finance. In the interim, the
Department continues to hold the rail industry to account to
deliver the punctual and reliable services that passengers and
taxpayers deserve...
Furness Line
Electrification
(Barrow and Furness) (Con):
What assessment he has made of the potential merits of
electrifying the Furness line.
The Minister of State, Department for Transport (): Northern is developing a final business case for a
new fleet that will bring new trains to my hon. Friend’s route,
and include options for greener technology such as batteries. We
are also working with the Great British
Railways transition team to assess options to
decarbonise the whole network.
(Denton and Reddish) (Lab): I
commend the work of my disabled young constituent, Nathaniel
Yates from Reddish, who has assessed every single railway station
in Greater Manchester. Too many of them are not step free. We
have the money for Reddish North, but when can we get the money
for Levenshulme?
: I commend that work as well. In fact, the Great British
Railways transition team has done a station
accessibility study auditing every one of our 2,500 stations.
That report is due out shortly. I hope that the team can work
with the hon. Member’s constituency to come up with some good
data and improve access for all.
