Mass Transit Systems

1. What steps she is taking to support the delivery of mass transit systems.

The delivery of mass transit systems has too often been slowed down by fragmented funding arrangements, difficulties in acquiring land and complex planning processes. Our new mass transit taskforce, made up of an independent panel of experts, will make practical recommendations on how we can speed up delivery and remove some of the blockers. We are also committed to devolving new powers, including Transport and Works Act 1992 orders, to ensure that local leaders have all the tools they need to deliver mass transit schemes quickly and efficiently.

People in Exeter love using the railway, and Devon was the first area to get back to and exceed pre-covid levels of rail travel, but our local and regional railway is hampered by under-investment. We do not need a new mass transit system, but we do want the one we have already to be frequent, reliable and resilient. Would the Secretary of State meet me and local stakeholders to see how we can make the Devon metro concept a reality?

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for all his work on public transport in Exeter and the wider Devon area. He and I have met colleagues in this place, and I am willing to continue that conversation about how we can ensure that people in Devon have a reliable, frequent rail service and the connectivity that they need as much as people do in other parts of the country.

As the Secretary of State knows, the closure of the B3191 at Cleeve Hill in my constituency remains a major problem for the town of Watchet and has left it effectively dependent on single vehicular access. Such extreme situations without proper access have serious consequences for immediate emergency access and the local economy. Will the Secretary of State commit to addressing this gap through the new structures fund?

It is important that we invest in our roads and structures on the wider road network. We have asked local authorities to come forward with proposals by 2 August for schemes that they think might be suitable for funding. We will look at all those applications carefully because I know the impact that disruption on the roads has on local communities.

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

Since coming to power, the Labour party has increased the bus fare cap by 50% from £2 to £3. But one area that has not seen that rise is Greater Manchester where the last Conservative Government gave over £1 billion to support its mass transit system, expressly including keeping a £2 bus fare cap. In The Telegraph this week, we read that Andy Burnham is now openly briefing—no doubt with the right hon. Lady’s support, when he becomes Prime Minister after kicking out her current boss—that he would restore a national £2 bus fare cap. Does she agree with the current Prime Minister or the man she is trying to make the next Prime Minister on the Conservatives’ £2 cap?

The Mayor of Greater Manchester has led the way when it comes to keeping fares affordable and bringing public transport back under public control, including throughout the years of the right hon. Member’s Tory Government. Funding provided by this Government led by this Prime Minister to the Mayor of Greater Manchester has been used to enable a more generous bus fare cap in the Greater Manchester city region, and it is right that we equip local leaders to take the sorts of decisions that are right for their local residents.

Given the right hon. Lady’s clearly close working relationship with the Greater Manchester Mayor, does she agree with the decision of the Prime Minister—sorry, Mayor Burnham—reported in The Sun to spend £35,000 of taxpayers’ money repainting a train because he literally had nothing to announce and needed “something”? How closely does this expensive paint job with nothing behind it resemble Labour’s ideas for mass transit?

I am proud of the fact that we are renationalising the railways, bringing the train operating companies back into public ownership. We have launched the brand-new livery and train designs, but more importantly than that, I can tell the right hon. Gentleman that train services that are now under public control are more reliable and have fewer cancellations than those still in the private sector.