Extracts from Business
Questions (Commons)
Dame (Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab): The Leader of the House has been asked a number of
questions about rail today. I am sure that he knows that
Transpennine Express has had to offer a rebate of 3% on its fares
because of its latest timetabling fiasco. That goes alongside its
failure to run Hull station properly: we have a leaky roof and
appalling toilets. May we have a debate about whether we should
introduce management productivity clauses into the franchise so
that, for example, TransPennine’s managing director, Leo Goodwin,
could refund perhaps more than 3% of the £331,000 salary he
receives after a recent 44% pay increase?
The Leader of the House of Commons (Mr ): On my own behalf and that
of the Government, I congratulate the hon. Lady on becoming a
Dame and on all she has contributed to Parliament, for which it
is a due and proper reward. She comes up with a novel solution—it
may be rather a good one—that people should have
performance-related pay and that if the performance is bad,
perhaps the pay should go down. That is not something, as a
capitalist, I am averse to.
(Nottingham South) (Lab):
Last month, the Prime Minister said,
"We should bring electrification of Midland Mainline back and do
the whole line through to Sheffield”,
but given that the two previous Tory Prime Ministers made
precisely the same promise, only to backtrack just a few weeks
after the election, may we have an urgent debate so that those
very busy Transport Ministers can be challenged on precisely when
and how they will deliver that vital investment?
Mr Rees-Mogg: I have a certain sympathy because the Great Western
line was also meant to be electrified, but then it was found to
be too difficult to do around Bath, which is the station I use—
: Because you use it.
Mr Rees-Mogg: I am always getting heckled from Rhondda! Everyone
else is so well behaved in this new Parliament. We have this new
image and row upon row of people who sit there politely
listening, other than the hon. Member for Rhondda ().
The hon. Member for Nottingham South () raises an important
point. There will be oral questions to Department for Transport
Ministers in due course, and I think that is the right time to
raise the subject initially as it may not constitute a full
debate on its own, but it will also be possible to raise the
matter at various points in the debate on the Queen’s Speech.
Extracts from Lords
debate on the Queen's Speech
(Lab):...I welcome the
Government’s commitment to the regions, particularly in
transport. This is the first time we have seen that for decades,
and it i is pretty good. It needs doing
because Transpennine Express has cancelled
40% of its services this month, or during some part of this
month. Northern Rail is apparently about to be stripped of its
franchises. How can you hold down a job if 40% of your trains on
the days on which you want to go to work are cancelled? Who is to
blame? It is easy to blame people. The rail operator blames a
lack of trains but 400 electric coaches are sitting in sidings
funded by the Department for Transport because electrification
was cancelled. Those 400 coaches could be operating today. That
does not include Crossrail, which is a separate subject for
another day. We have got to get our act
together. This is about Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and the
north-east. As we know, the result is not good...
(CB):...Take a look
at some of our recent reports. Take a look at Crossrail, which is
over budget and still not there. Take a look at HS2. Take a look
at the starter home target of 200,000 houses, which delivered,
well, none at all, actually. If you have time, take a look at
the Great Western Railway modernisation
or perhaps the decommissioning of our nuclear submarines. That
has been a policy commitment since 1990, which so far has led to
no vessels at all being decommissioned and untold riches being
spent on stockpiling disused submarines. We now have more
submarines in storage than in operation...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
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