Supplementary written evidence from the Department for Transport (AES 01)

When I recently gave evidence before the Transport Select Committee about the transport elements of the Autumn Statement, I promised to come back to you and the Committee on a number of points. Please find further clarification on these below: The timetable of Southern's procurement of additional vehicles

Southern issued an Invitation To Tender in September to procure additional vehicles to enable it to deliver its December 2013 timetable. The deadline for bids was 16th November. Since then, commercial discussions between the train operating company and the bidders have continued in order to agree an acceptable, value for money position before they move to preferred bidder status. If such a position can be achieved, my Department will be progressing commercial discussions With the operator on any required changes to their Franchise Agreement in light of this procurement.

Trans Pennine electrification and the Northern Hub

The Northern Hub has been developed from a base of today's diesel-operated network and takes account of the slower acceleration and line speeds of older suburban diesel trains.

Electrification of the North West Triangle between , and Preston, and now of the north Trans Pennine route between Manchester, Leeds and , has changed the way the railway in the north will operate. Faster electric suburban trains are likely to replace the older diesel trains and changes to service routes and calling patterns may offer more efficient alignment of train capacity against demand. This has changed the base assumption of the Northern Hub. For example, a local diesel train from to Manchester Victoria would be caught up by a faster diesel Trans Pennine train by Manchester Victoria and therefore needs overtaking at Victoria if the trans Pennine train is not to be delayed. However if both these services are electric — as is expected to be the case later this decade — then the electric local train can reach Stalybridge before it is caught up by the trans Pennine train. Thus the investment in overtaking facilities for diesel trains at Victoria needs to be replaced by investment in reversing sidings at Stalybridge for electric trains.

The Northern Hub schemes need to be reviewed to see if they are still the best solutions against the background of electric trains replacing diesels on the core routes. As well as having good acceleration and high line speeds, the electric trains are likely to have greater passenger capacity and, with modern sliding doors, may require less time at stations than the older diesel trains during the peak hours. The redeployment of the faster Trans Pennine diesels also has to be considered as this too will change the services that can be provided.

The train operating companies have started to consider with Network Rail the range of opportunities for service improvements this wide-ranging electrification plan brings. We expect the rail industry to work with stakeholders to agree the likely service changes that will result and then review these against forecast demand to validate Northern Hub projects. This could change both the mix of schemes and the scheme priorities within the package of schemes that constitute the Northern Hub programme.

We have committed to consider the Northern Hub schemes again as part of the Government's High Level Output Specification (HLOS) for rail investment in Control Period 5 (2014/15 to 2018/19). This will be published by July 2012 and will take account of the revised advice on the Northern Hub.

FOI request about West Coast Main Line train loading data

Though the Department for Transport has — with the explicit agreement of the train operators concerned — published lists of most crowded trains (see: http://www.dft.gov.uk/publications/overcrowded-train-services) no other data on train loadings have been released by the Department, as this material in held under terms of commercial confidentiality.

The decision to withhold the peak loading information for the West Coast Mainline has been appealed. There is an established procedure for handling appeals where an applicant feels an information request has not been dealt with properly which my Department is following, and I would not want to interfere with that process.

Breakdown of new transport schemes by region

The following table breaks down spend on both the transport schemes announced as part of the Autumn Statement and the further Local Major schemes announced on 14 December.

The Department received an extra £1.5 billion in the Autumn Statement over the rest of this Spending Review period. The schemes below are either funded by the Departmental budget, the extra funding from HM Treasury or, for some rail projects, by increasing the Regulatory Asset Base. Although £972m of Departmental spend on Local Major Schemes is outlined in this table, the total cost of these schemes are £1.4bn, with Local Authorities and other third parties responsible for the additional funding. As I explained during the session with the Committee, it can be difficult to assign spend to a particular region, particularly with some rail projects. For Trans Pennine Electrification, I have apportioned spend between the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber for the purpose of this exercise.

Description Total spend (ern)

NORTH EAST

Morpeth northern bypass 21.1 Sunderland strategic corridor 82.6 Accelerate NEXUS (Tyne and Wear metro) modernisation 4.0 programme* 107.7 NORTH WEST

New link road for M56 (Manchester Airport) to the A6 120.0 Crewe Green link southern section 15.7 Manchester cross city bus* 32.5 Pennine Reach (East Lancs rapid transit) 31.9

Rochdale interchange* 7.0 Trans Pennine electrification (spend arbitrarily split 145.0 between regions) 352.1 YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER

Accelerating M1 J39-42 improvements* 50.0 Leeds inner ** 18.5 Leeds rail growth 10.3 A6182 White Rose Way improvement scheme 9.7 South Yorkshire bus rapid transit phase 1 (Sheffield) 19.4 A164 Humber bridge to Beverley 7.7 Beverley integrated transport plan 20.7 A684 Bedale bypass 35.9 Access York park and ride 15.3 New road linking the A18 and A180 4.9 Supertram additional vehicles (Sheffield) 12.4 Large debt write off and lower tolls for the Humber Bridge 294.0 Trans Pennine electrification (spend arbitrarily split 145.0 between regions) 643.8 WEST MIDLANDS

Managed motorway on the M6 - Junction 10a to 118.9 Junction 13 Improving the A45/46 at Tollbar End 113.0 A45 westbound bridge (Solihull) 8.5 Darlaston (Walsall) 14.3 Evesham bridge maintenance 8.6 Worcester ITS 14.2 Chester Road (Birmingham) 8.3 Coventry-Nuneaton rail upgrade 9.8 295.6

EAST MIDLANDS

Widening A453 between Nottingham, the M1 and East 160.0 Midlands Airport Improving Junction 19 - the junction between the Ml, M6 153.0 and A14, a key freight route, as well as improving safety Widening A14 Junction 7 to Junction 9 (Kettering Bypass) 113.4 New A43 Corby link road 21.2 Hucknall town centre improvement scheme 8.5 Lincoln eastern bypass 50.0 London road bridge (Derby) 4.4 Loughborough town centre transport scheme 14.8 Nottingham ring road 12.8 538.1 EAST

A14 targeted improvements between Cambridge and 20.0 Huntingdon Croxley rail link (Watford) 76.2 Luton town centre transport scheme 15.9 Norwich northern distributor road 86.5 198.6 SOUTH WEST

South Bristol link phases 1 and 2 27.6 New A380 road linking Newton Abbot to Torbay 76.4 (Kingskerswell Bypass) Bath transportation package 11.7 BRT Ashton Vale to Temple Meads (Bristol) 34.5 Camborne-Pool-Redruth transport package 16.1 Elmbridge transport (Gloucester) 14.1 Weston Super Mare package 10.4 North Fringe to Hengrove package BRT (Bristol) 51.1 241.9

LONDON

Managed motorway on the M3, Junction 2 to Junction 4a 150.1 Accelerating M25 Junction 23 to Junction 27 50.0 improvements* Retrofit existing buses for air quality purposes (this will be 5.0 match funded by the Mayor) Move to RPI+1 (lost revenues for TfL) 136.0 341.1 SOUTH EAST

Tipner interchange (Portsmouth) 19.8 Northern road bridge (Portsmouth) 11.1 East-West rail project 270.0 Flexible commuter rail tickets 45.0 New Southern rail carriages 80.0 425.9 NOT REGION SPECIFIC

Integrated transport block top up - Used by local transport 50.0 authorities for small transport improvement schemes costing less than £5 million Road pinch point fund - Local Managed Network 217.5 Schemes and highways technology improvements New low carbon emission buses — green bus fund 20.0 round 3 Tackle local problems on the rail network more quickly 100.0 (NRDF) Metal theft taskforce 5.0 Move to RPI+1 (lost rail revenues and transitional costs) 154.0 Rail winter resilience 10.0 Access for All station accessibility improvements 26.0 Bridge renewals 250.0 832.5

*These schemes are being accelerated and spend is being brought forward from future years. ** This is the maximum DfT spend and is dependent on the successful resolution of various funding agreements with other bodies who have liability for some of the works.

December 2012