(Oldham East and Saddleworth)
(Lab):...I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. He
will remember that we met on 4 June, when I relayed some of the
real issues that my constituents in Oldham and Saddleworth were
facing. He said that we should be seeing improvements to the
emergency timetable. I said that I would hold him to it, and he
also said that he would look at contingency arrangements if there
were not improvements. I went back to Greenfield station last
Friday and spoke to constituents who use those trains. They said
that they had seen only marginal differences, so will the Secretary
of State now commit to bringing these franchises—Northern and
Transpennine Express—in-house, and will he ensure that there is
compensation for TPE passengers as well?
(Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
(SNP):...The Secretary of State’s ideological zeal
is at its most visible when it comes to the railways—private sector
equals good, nationalisation or public ownership equals bad and
inefficient—yet, under the current set-up, state-owned railway
companies from all over the world run franchises in the UK. The UK
franchise system, based on the premise that public ownership is
bad, is subsidising railways across the world. Chiltern Railways,
CrossCountry, Northern, and Wales and Borders are run by Arriva,
which is owned by Deutsche Bahn. Essex Thameside is run by
Trenitalia UK, which is owned by the Italian state railway. Greater
Anglia and ScotRail are run by Abellio, which is owned by
NedRailways, and Abellio is also involved with the West Midlands
franchise, along with the East Japan Railway Company. Southeastern,
Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern are run by Govia, which
includes Keolis, which is owned by the French state rail operator,
SNCF. Keolis is also involved in Transpennine Express and will
be part of the re-let Welsh franchise later this year...
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab):...We have heard the dogma as to why franchising is
continuing, but I want to discuss open-access trains. We had to
fight hard to get Hull Trains, an open-access operator, to provide
a direct service to London, but it is in meltdown, and I have heard
nothing from the Department for Transport or the Secretary of State
about that. Our rolling stock constantly breaks down, we do not
have enough spare capacity, and drivers are trained only on the
class 185s, which are unfit for the route down to
London. FirstGroup, the parent company, does not seem to
be doing anything about the fact that Hull Trains’ reputation,
which was good in the city, is taking a nosedive, with people
feeling that it is no longer a reliable service, but there has been
nothing from the Department on that...
...Looking at the franchise that the Department and the Secretary
of State are involved with, Transpennine runs the station in Hull
and has spent £1.4 million on it, but we are still among the top 10
worst stations in country. It has managed to build some small,
smelly toilets to replace the old ones and some new retail units,
which have remained empty for weeks. Every morning, I walk through
Canary Wharf to get to Westminster, and I see Canary Wharf station,
which cost £500 million and has a roof garden. Of course, private
money has gone into that project, but we cannot even get a toilet
attendant at Hull station. I want to highlight to the Secretary of
State and the Minister the stark difference between the north and
the south. This is like a “Carry On” film; it is a farce. The
Secretary of State must take responsibility. The buck stops with
him and he should go...
(St Austell and Newquay)
(Con):...On our railways, we are about to see brand-new
rolling stock being rolled out on the Great Western Railway into
Cornwall to replace the 40-year-old trains that we currently have
to put up with. The new state-of-the-art rolling stock will have
far more seats for passengers and a much better driver
experience. We have also seen the upgrading of our signalling on
the railways through Cornwall. That will increase capacity and
the frequency of the trains. Again, that is the result of more
investment that this Government are delivering for transport into
Cornwall...
Dr (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op):
Does my hon. Friend accept that although this issue is
concentrated in the north, the east and London, it is a national
problem? Great Western has been going through its own dramatic
problems, with a huge number of cancellations, driver shortages
and all the other problems that have been mentioned. It is a
national problem.
(Easington) (Lab):
I am grateful for that thoughtful intervention, and my hon.
Friend makes a good point. However, although there are national
issues with the training of drivers and ensuring that they have
the appropriate skillset, industry stakeholders pointed out to
the Department and, presumably, the Secretary of State that it
would normally take 40 weeks to prepare, identify training needs
and ensure that drivers were in place, but in this case only 16
weeks were allocated and, if my memory of yesterday’s evidence
serves me right, it was not until around two days before
implementation, when they were drawing up the driver rosters,
that they discovered that they had the wrong skill mix and that
the drivers were in the wrong..
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
