Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he plans to take to co-ordinate steps to enhance public transport and accelerate the transition to ultra-low emission vehicles.

Andrew Jones

We have an ambitious programme of improvement for public transport. The Government is investing more than £38 billion in Network Rail to deliver the biggest programme of railway modernisation since the Victorian times, and backing Transport for the North and Midlands Connect to enable cities and regions. We are also supporting technology upgrades on transport networks to meet the expectations of the digital age and to deliver extra capacity.

We want nearly all cars and vans to be zero emission by 2050 and have committed more than £600 million between 2015 and 2020 to this goal, which is itself a substantial increase in funding compared to the previous Parliament. This investment will bring improvements to public transport as well. We have allocated £30m to support low emission buses, which will improve urban air quality, reduce running costs, and provide smoother more reliable journeys for passengers. We are supporting the installation of electric vehicle chargepoints at public transport hubs. 80 chargepoints have already been installed at train stations, and the £40m Go Ultra Low City Scheme includes plans for many more at strategic urban locations, such as park-and-ride sites, as well as measures to encourage EV car clubs. The low emission vehicle industry already supports over 18,000 UK jobs and it is a key element of our ambitions for a low carbon, high tech, high skills economy.