I have received the below written answers from the Department for Transport:
The Department for Transport has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (158848):
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the projected reduction in rail losses and rail subsidy is for the 2022-23 compared to 2021-22. (158848)
Tabled on: 22 April 2022
Answer:
Wendy Morton:
The Departmentâs Main Estimate in 2022/23, for both support for rail passenger services and to deliver reforms, is ÂŁ3bn. This is a reduction from an estimated outturn of c.ÂŁ5bn in 2021/22, primarily due to an increase in revenue. Actual 2021/22 outturn will be published in due course as part of the Departmentâs Annual Report and Accounts.
The answer was submitted on 27 Apr 2022 at 14:32.
The Department for Transport has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (158852):
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of commuter miles that will be travelled on the railways in 2022-23 compared with pre-covid levels. (158852)
Tabled on: 25 April 2022
Answer:
Wendy Morton:
In line with our published guidance, the Department has developed a number of scenarios of possible rail demand to reflect uncertainty including how passengers respond post-Covid-19. The Department considers a wide range of evidence for our project appraisals and policy decisions.
The answer was submitted on 27 Apr 2022 at 14:34.
The Department for Transport has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (158853):
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an estimate of the expected cost to the (a) railway industry and (b) public purse of offering discounted tickets on certain railway journeys from 25 April to 27 May 2022. (158853)
Tabled on: 25 April 2022
Answer:
Wendy Morton:
Government has supported industry to develop and deliver the sale; the scheme is run on a commercial basis.
The answer was submitted on 27 Apr 2022 at 14:36.
April 29, 2022
So an answer for question one and then two evasive replies.
This seems to fit a pattern for other parliamentary questions reported on this site.
April 29, 2022
Indeed must have taken all Wendy Mortonâs Open University MBA skills to sign of those âjust go away Mr Redwood â replies! I assume prepared by civil âservantsâ.
April 29, 2022
So twenty five years since Tony Blair was swept to power (thanks to “no change no chance” John ERM Major (still no apology from this foolish EURO enthusiast twit).
All my life the UK has had dire PMs Wilson, Callaghan, Heath, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Boris. All have been appalling with the sole (& only partial) exception of Thatcher. But Blair was surely the worst in terms of the vast damage he did to the UK with his moronic wars, botched devolution and Gordon Brown as a truly appalling Chancellor.
Did Blair do anything positive at all in his 10+years?
April 29, 2022
Blair will be remembered for Iraq (and Afghanistan) and for his spin (that was used to start the dumb war).
No substance. All spin. Complete light weight as a politician. Worst PM I can think of. And then you still seeing him on the TV as if people care what he thinks. Like something from a Shakespeare tragedy.
April 29, 2022
The daily sceptic today:- Deaths in Iceland Jump 30% in First Quarter of 2022 (and not Covid deaths) â Just as Vaccine Boosters Were Rolled Out.
Did the âexpertsâ not tell us all the vaccines were âsafe and ~ 90% effectiveâ it seems they are often neither. Yet we are still jabbing children (who are not even at any real risk) with them in the UK.
April 29, 2022
+ many
I guess they darenât stop?
That just might elicit unanswerable questions.
As I said from the outsetâŠ
This all happened over âswine fluâ but after 50 or so deaths they STOPPED JABBING!!
But this time the controlled media went into full mass hypnosis mode.
Terrorising the population actually.
April 29, 2022
Please God (and I mean that), Pootin doesn’t jab anyone with a nuclear bomb.
We’ve got to get serious about Pootin (everything else now is almost irrelevant).
And that means we now have to:
1) Get away from Russian hydrocarbons as soon as possible. It’s like depending on a gangster, piled high with nuclear war heads and supersonic missiles. Got to squeeze the Russian economy now as quickly as possible / as soon as possible. Short term pain for long-term security.
In fact we have to become dependent on nuclear power and renewables here in the UK so we never have to be dependent on a gangster regime for our fuel / power.
2) Build Laser Defence against Hypersonic missiles and other deadly missiles. As quickly as possible (this dangerous tech is only going to get more sophisticated and prolific). Not only is this tech about defence but also about holding leverage abroad (we don’t have a choice. We have to build it. And use it as effectively as possible to stimulate the economy).
3) Pray (for those who are of the praying type).
April 29, 2022
So let me get this right.
Ben Wallace has said that Putin might declare WW3 in Red Square on Victory Day.
The Prime Minister that saddled us with the NIP and got us stuck in the Brino catflap so that we can’t properly leave the EU – for fear of a return of IRA terrorism – is prepared to go to nuclear war with Russia for the right of Ukraine to join the EU ?
All this while Parliament argues about cake and leg flashing ?
OMG.
If we get nuked we thoroughly deserve it.
April 29, 2022
I think the EU and the IRA are completely irrelevant (although I’m sure the IRA are grateful that someone bothered to waste some energy thinking and talking to them).
The fight with the EU is like having a fight with Paddington Bear, compared to the Big Bad Wolf of the Russian leadership.
April 29, 2022
‘thinking and talking to them’ – thinking and talking about them, meant.
April 29, 2022
Also, why are you more invested in Brexit than Life?!
You don’t seem that bothered if we’re nuked but it’s the end of the world about Brexit?!
Doesn’t make sense.
Sovereignty from the EU is important but not even remotely comparable to 60 million people being blown up by a nuke (God forbid). I trust you were being flippant but even that doesn’t justify your comment in any sense.
April 30, 2022
and so ends ( but no it doesn’t ) the Sermon according to Ed M.
April 30, 2022
I don’t mean to preach. I’m just throwing out some ideas to fellow Tories (not always in the best way – but whose perfect?!). Happy for people to challenge me (and agree with me – or not) and let’s have a few sparks! Better than being polite and / or boring / and / or aggressive and / or indifferent. Lastly, it’s often through healthy exchange that the best ideas and thinking come out whether in business, the arts, politics, whatever.
April 30, 2022
We do have a choice, Ed. We stop going along with the ‘gangster’ regime in Washington that has been stoking up tension and fear around the world for decades. And instead of spending taxpayers’ money on laser and hypersonic weapons we wouldn’t then need, and can’t afford anyway, we support the real economy. We invest in energy and food requirements for future generations, not in cold war paranoia that our government has done so much to stir up in the first place. We return to Britain’s place in the world as a trading nation, not as an arms depot and global gunslinger. We also need governments to abide by international agreements approved by the UN, such as the 2015 Minsk accords that France and Germany, who sponsored them, allowed Ukraine to ignore. Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and their shareholders might not prefer that sort of future, but I do.
May 1, 2022
One of the things I love about Conservatism is that it gives people choices / opportunities to do well in life (but that you have to work hard to achieve whatever you want – whether that be in trade as a successful entrepreneur, or in science as an inventor, or in the arts as an artist, whatever). But part of that is also defending people from nutcases beyond our borders. Washington might have a lot of nutcases but their danger is indirect. Unfortunately there are also nutcases in other parts of the world who are, potentially, a direct threat to us. And so we need to be able to defend ourselves against these so that we are free to grow as a trading nation or to do whatever we want to do in science, the arts and so on.
April 29, 2022
+1
I always think so rude and sullen and defensive ( of total ineptitude?)
How strange that the goat entrails runes roll up nicely to the nearest billion ÂŁÂŁÂŁ.
No pennies.
No sense.
No care.
WellâŠitâs only taxpayersâ money.
April 29, 2022
Well you can have highly suspicious over precision ÂŁ10,346.556.33p and suspicious imprecision ÂŁ9 billion!
April 29, 2022
+1
All very suspect if you ask me!đ
April 29, 2022
It seems this is business as usual. Private Eye no 1570 describes a Commons foreign affairs committee :-
âThey spent the next hour and a quarter repeating formulaic non-replies.â
âxxxxxx was blatant in his stonewalling.â
ââI recognise the importance of your process.â Xxxxxx robotically told the MPs before delivering a long-winded spiel of nothingness.â
April 29, 2022
Indeed and they think this constant evasiveness qualifies them for a return at the ballot box albeit it just confirms how inefficient the whole set up is.
Not the Civil Service problem at the Passport Office, the PS of the HO says it is world class. Blame it on a French company. World class bollocks!
April 29, 2022
A French company, Teleperformance, with UK employees in its Bristol and Leicester call centres where the actual bottlenecks appear to reside.
Isnât it strange that for a thing as British as a UK blue passport the Home Office decided to give the contracts to Teleperformance for the call centres and to the French/Dutch company Gemalto for the design, with the actual printing done in Poland, when DeLaRue (sounds French but is a UK company) lost the HO contract in 2019?
Which HO Minister could have given the green light to such a strange arrangement? Or is it to show how global Britain is?
April 29, 2022
I didnât agree with the contract going to a French/Dutch company unless they pay full uk corporation tax, but they offered savings from ÂŁ400m from the previous contract down to ÂŁ260m, now if that was at the cost of performance speed and efficiency plus the corporation tax going out of the UK then the saving wasnât true or there.
April 29, 2022
Is it incompetence, or concealment, the reason why questions do not get answered? This information should be available.
April 29, 2022
Don’t really know and two absolutely no ideas. Return to your back bench and if passing GO do not collect ÂŁ200. Don’t worry Humphry, its only him again.
April 29, 2022
I suppose your headline is correct in one sense. I assume the words were written. But answers? I think not.
But thank you for publishing this. It makes one realise why the Government is in the state it’s in…
April 29, 2022
OK
So the NOW reality ( right now, today) is far fewer trains.
Very few staff at the stations and unfathomable ( even for the young) ticket machines.
And apparently older people not going into towns because of equally unfathomable parking ticket machines.
April 29, 2022
Everhopeful
Indeed deliberate complication is the name of the game, then you can “Fine” people, because they do not understand, because ignorance is no excuse !!
They always mask it under a number of names, progress, inclusivity, diversification, technology, etc, assuming everyone has a smart phone and is smart enough to use it, that is if WiFi is actually present, and your phone has enough charge left in its batteries.
I remember trying to park the car in Brighton a few years ago, gave up eventually, as the system at that time was so impossible to use, even the telephone help line (with a recorded message) said contact our website and download and then download the required App !.
Never been to Brighton since, never plan to go again, as far too many restrictions for the unwary, Bike lanes, no entry signs, one way streets, bus lanes, 20mph speed limits, and horrendous parking charges.
April 29, 2022
+many
Utter disgrace!
Similar, with no warning, happened to me here. One day âPay and Displayâ ..the next âŠwell..mayhem.
Dreadful feeling of having slept for 1000 years and woken in a totally alien time and place.
April 30, 2022
you didn’t mention stony beach? Perhaps you never got to the sea?
April 29, 2022
Donât worry; with HS2 on the horizon for only ÂŁ150bn, and powered by Borisâs windfarms and solar panels it could be freeâŠ.the sun has got its hat onâŠ..hip hip hip hurray
April 30, 2022
Which horizon is that? On the edge of ‘Neverland’?
April 29, 2022
I doubt that such questions need be asked very often in France, in Italy, or in Germany.
April 29, 2022
What an odd comment – the questions are perfectly reasonable questions about operations which might apply in any ownership model
April 29, 2022
It’s not about ownership.
It’s about knowing how to run a railway.
April 29, 2022
How many passenger miles?
How much is the cost?
What might be the effect of discounting on increasing journeys?
Seems to be to be good data for running a railway. Sir John might also have asked about delays and repairs and safety but these are the answers we have seen today.
April 30, 2022
Are you guessing as usual – or just claiming you know?
April 29, 2022
More evidence confirming that this is the worst government in my lifetime.
April 29, 2022
Yeap
April 29, 2022
Another bank holiday weekend, more cancelled services, they have asked people to travel either side of the bank holiday, its a very poor show, a private company not getting subsidies just wouldn’t do that.
April 29, 2022
These can only be described as feeble answers – doesn’t sound like they are bei8ng truly open and honest about this subject.
April 29, 2022
JR appears to have accidentally asked three questions in the wrong order as the answer to the first was obviously based on the known unknowns of the subsequent two. Perhaps the DoT has inside knowledge which they are not prepared to disclose on the likelihood of their going back to work to collect their salaries.
April 29, 2022
It is clear that Greenism is going to create a society of two halves. Those who can afford cars and heating and those who can’t. THAT is the real Green plan. Teslas and heat pumps are basically giving the illusion that “We’re providing you with an alternative” when there is actually NO alternative for most. Those things are simply out of the reach of most pockets. Conventional methods of heating and transport are being taxed to death.
At the very time this is happening the railways (the only viable alternative) are in a state of economic collapse because of Working from Home. By the time two thirds of people have been forced out of cars there will be no railways left either ! A case of use it or lose it.
Do we need anywhere near the number of London office buildings now ? How is London Weighting now justified for those WFH in both public and private sector ? There need to be drastic savings made everywhere.
April 29, 2022
Clueless yet so hubristic.
In the light of which, war-mongering speeches make the blood run cold.
One deadâŠone lostâŠ.so far.
And our govt canât even run the railways!
April 29, 2022
It is reported across the UK media that this is the first death.What happened to the three “former special forces members” reported to have been killed in the missile strike on the NATO training base in western Ukraine near the Polish border on 14/15 March?
Memory hole?
April 29, 2022
Even an outsourced call centre in Bangalore may provide more intelligent replies than those the Dept of Transport regards as relevant answers.
April 29, 2022
A question I would ask the Department of Transport is what is their prediction for the effect on rail users from the introduction earlier this year of the new version of the âConditions of Travelâ which no longer requires rail companies to adhere to their twice yearly published timetables?
Instead rail companies are allowed to change the timetable from day to day and produce what is termed the âThe Published Timetable of the Dayâ. This daily timetable must be published by 22:00 hrs the day before on the National Rail website.
And since compensation will only be paid based upon the performance compared to the âPublished Timetable of the Dayâ will discounted advance tickets be a gamble?
April 29, 2022
Interesting. Do you think they couldn’t answer the second and third questions because they didn’t know the answers, or that they did know the answers but were too embarrassed to give them ? The mention of “a number of scenarios” in the second non-answer reminds one of Prof Ferguson and his projection-not-a-prediction scaremongering. I suppose in this case though they will choose the most optimistic scenario.
OT but I see the government being blamed for a range of things from slow Ukrainian visas to passport office delays to assorted (but not all) Partygate events. In reality these are all Civil Services failures. The government needs to realise that they will be blamed anyway so they need to get a grip on the Civil Service.
April 29, 2022
I recall the late, great, Peter Sellers performing a simulated political speech which tried to emulate this level of inanity. Had he still been alive he would have conceded total defeat
April 29, 2022
“This level of inanity”
The mark has been overstepped in the whipping up of
fear, disgust etc.
It’s now just extremely funny
From Blinkalot with his lopsided head to the gal pinned
against the wall.
April 29, 2022
The government is as unhelpful as it was in Dickens’s time. I wrote to 10 Downing Street to ask which shade of yellow had been used for painting the staircase at 10 Downing Street, because I lived in a historic property and wanted to use the same colour. No reply. So I wrote again and made it a FOI request. The reply came back: the colour was yellow.
April 29, 2022
MPs ( all sides ) are grotesquely funnier by the hour.
Any more and I may become an acolyte of Yuval.
April 29, 2022
I have had it with this government now. The 4th failure to implement checks on goods inbound from the EU – checks which are already in existence at the same ports for non-EU goods – is the final straw. Incompetence to make even trivial changes cannot be tolerated in a government.