Baroness Kramer visits Oxford and Banbury to see
transport funding at work.
Transport Minister Baroness Kramer visited Oxfordshire
yesterday to see how government funding is making a real difference to rail
passengers and local air quality.
The
minister opened the new £10 million multi-storey car park at Banbury
Station which provides more than 700 parking spaces for those using the popular
commuter station. It also includes facilities to encourage those taking the
train to choose environmentally-friendly ways of getting to the station, with
plug-in car chargepoints and facilities for cyclists.
Baroness Kramer said:
I
was pleased to open Banbury Station’s new car park, which will make a
huge difference for its increasing number of passengers. Our funding has helped
create a more attractive, passenger-focused and, thanks to its new cycling
facilities, environmentally friendly station.
Our
railways are an important engine for economic growth, getting people and goods
where they need to go. That is why £38 billion is being invested to
improve and maintain them over the next 5 years.
The
minister also visited Oxford where she toured environmental transport schemes
on a low-emission hybrid bus supported by the Department for
Transport’s Green Bus
Fund.
She
met with leaders from Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council and local
transport providers Stagecoach and Oxford Bus Company to learn about how they
are working in partnership to achieve a reduction in transport emissions in the
city and how Oxford has benefitted from DfT funding.
Baroness Kramer visited Oxford City Council’s new
plug-in vehicle chargepoints, Oxford County Council’s bike hire scheme
and also met representatives of the city’s electric car
club.
Baroness Kramer added:
I
was pleased to see how Oxford’s ambitions to cut carbon from transport
have been supported by the government.
Oxford’s cleaner buses, car clubs and cycle hire
scheme make it a more pleasant city and show just why we continue to support
the drive for greener transport through a raft of funding and policy
measures.