Britain Needs A Full Time Transport Secretary

Bath's MP, Don Foster, will be on the offensive in Parliament today by demanding that Britain needs a full time Transport Secretary to sort out the problems and to get Britain moving.

In today's Opposition day debate on Transport, Don who is Lib Dem Shadow Transport Secretary will say:

"Britain is in the throes of a transport crisis. There is a remorseless rise in congestion, train fares are going up again while faith in the reliability of public transport is going down.

"In Britain we already have the highest fares in Europe. The cost of rail fares has increased by one-third in real terms since 1979, while the cost of motoring has actually fallen by 5%.

"Bus use outside of London has decreased, and as drivers take to their cars our already congested roads are showing the strain.

"The level of delays on our railways is still worse than when Labour came to power in 1997. The Government is struggling to even reach the unambitious standard set by the Conservatives.

"Britain deserves a safe, reliable and affordable transport system. Until the Transport Secretary delivers it, the Government cannot afford to have Alistair Darling's attention diverted by Scotland."

ENDS



Notes to Editors to follow...



Notes to Editors

1.) Liberal Democrat Opposition Day Motion on the Transport Crisis: 'That this House believes that for the duration of the crisis in transport the country requires a full-time Secretary of State for Transport.'

2.) Highest Train Fares in Europe

At present £10 will only take passengers 42 miles on the UK railway system
For the same money you can travel more than three times as far in Spain and over four times as far in Italy.
Fares on our railways are one-third more expensive now than in 1979 (taking inflation into account). £10 took you 63 miles in 1979 while £10 will only take you 42 miles today. (Data from Parliamentary Question Answer 81589, Office of National Statistics and (https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2590979.stm).
Under this Labour Government rail fares have continued to increase - increasing 8% since 1997.
The cost of rail fares is going up while motoring costs are going down. The cost of motoring fell by 5% between by 1979 and 2001 according to most recent figures (Parliamentary Answer 81589).


Details of League Table for selected nations of how far can you travel on the railways for £10 available on request.

3.) Delays on British railways won't even improve to the levels of pre Labour standards until 2011

Earlier this month Liberal Democrats undertook a survey of the latest delay figures from Train Operating Companies (TOC) from displays at mainline train stations and online sources. These figures were compared with the figures for the same 4-week period in 2001.

The pre-Labour standard of April 1997 has not been achieved yet, except for First Great Eastern and Silverlink.

By calculating an annual improvement rate (in the case of Central Trains and Connex South Eastern it is actually an annual worsening rate), it is possible to show in which year each individual train company - presuming that it will keep its annual improvement rate - might achieve its pre-Labour standard of punctuality again.

On average this will be achieved in 2011, although some TOCs need a very long time span to reach their April 1997 again, such as South Central Trains (2091!), Thames Trains (2020) and Thameslink (2012).

Delays on Central Trains and Connex South Eastern are getting worse. If their figures continue worsening at this rate it is likely that they will never achieve their April 1997 figures again but will worsen increasingly over time. Instead, it can be calculated that Central Trains will not be able to run a single train on time in 2014.

This data was calculated from statistics placed in the library of the House of Commons in answer to a written Parliamentary Question Answer (21032) to Don Foster MP on 19th December 2001. A second comparison was undertaken with the delay figures for April 1997 (taken from Opraf Annual Report 1997 - 1998, Strategic Rail Authority, https://www.sra.gov.uk/sra/publications/annual_report_default.tt2) in order to show the decrease of punctuality of trains between 1997 and 2001.



Full details available on request

This article published: 23/06/2023

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