(Plymouth, Sutton and
Devonport) (Lab/Co-op):...Members will know that in
2014, the Great Western rail line between Exeter
and Newton Abbot was badly damaged by storms. The train line was
washed away, leaving the rails hanging like a Peruvian rope
bridge above the waves, and as a result, the far south-west and
the rest of the country were cut off from each other. The hon.
Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) mentioned coastal erosion,
which is most apparent from the coastline at Dawlish. I went to
university in Exeter, and the place where I studied in the summer
months, on the cliffs overlooking the sea, has now been washed
away. Those cliffs are no longer there, and when I go past on the
train every day, going back and forth to Westminster, I look at
that little bit of air and remember that I used to study on it.
Coastal erosion is real, and the threat it poses to our train
line is apparent.
The Great Western train line was closed for
two months in 2014, which affected our entire region, costing us
around £1 billion in lost economic activity. It was our one and
only train line—our spinal connection, our lifeline for business
and leisure travel, daily journeys, holidays and investment—and
its closure exposed a gaping hole in Government policy towards
the far south-west. Ministers did not care enough to find the
funding that we needed to make our train line resilient to the
increasing extreme weather that this country faces. The former
Prime Minister came down to Dawlish in the
wake of the storms and said, “Money is no object” in making sure
that such a closure would not happen again. However, last week,
the train line closed. A month before, it closed again. It has
closed dozens of times since that incident in 2014.
Strong winds, heavy rain, and large waves crashing over the sea
wall affect the resilience of the Great Western train line and cut us off.
Thanks to the good work of Great Western Railway and Network Rail
staff, our train line is now operational again, but more extreme
weather is going to have more impacts on that precarious and
fragile train line. The Minister will know that in bad weather,
when the waves crash over our train line, CrossCountry trains
cannot get through. The design of those precious and precarious
Voyager trains means that they short-circuit when they come into
contact with salt water, meaning that if waves hit those trains
at Dawlish, they short-circuit and block the track. That is not
good enough. Now that Ministers recognise the chaos in our rail
franchising system, they have pulled the franchise competition,
but that has removed the opportunity to create trains that can
get through that particular bit of track...
(Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
(SNP):...The hon. Gentleman also highlighted both the
impact of erosion on general transport infrastructure and the
closure of the Great Western rail line, which cut
off the south-west of England. Again, that illustrates the need
for action and for resilience planning, as he said...
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