(Con):...The
Government’s response to our report stresses that the Northern
and Transpennine Express
franchises will deliver over 500 brand new vehicles and retire all
the existing Pacer trains. Yet, in spite of the Government’s
confidence, Pacer trains remain in widespread use today. Allow me
to stress that Pacers were initially given a lifespan of 20 years
when they were introduced as a stop-gap in the 1980s. Forty years
later, many are still with us...
(GP):...I have talked about my personal expertise. I refer to
the Transpennine so-called
Express—I think some of your Lordships will be well aware
of that—and for the need for all this to be integrated and fitted
together. When I catch trains in many parts of the continent, every
carriage has an indicator board telling you the next station and
giving you real-time information about what bus connections you can
make. It even sometimes tells you about where you can hire a bike
and ways in which you can have an integrated journey. That is the
kind of thing that we should spend money on...
(LD):...There have
been some sensible suggestions of ways to reduce costs. One is to
look again at Old Oak Common as the terminus, which would be a real
regeneration project—and I have to say that I am concerned at the
prospect of 10 years of disruption at Euston. We can also look
again at the number of trains an hour; noble Lords have emphasised
in this debate that 18 trains an hour is not realistic. We need to
reconsider the top speed, because speed costs money. The DfT seems
obsessed with speed, but we should be looking at reducing the speed
slightly and saving a significant amount of money. I can tell your
Lordships that, as a regular passenger on Great
Western Railway, this year I have taken three trains, and
all three have been significantly late. We have this wonderful new,
electrified, high-speed line on Great Western
Railway, but the trains are late. Reliability matters most of all,
rather than a few extra minutes.
Any idea of falling back on the concept of upgrading existing
lines needs to be avoided. Andrew Haines, the chief executive of
Network Rail, called the idea absurd. To provide similar capacity
to that of HS2 would need the upgrading of the west coast, east
coast and Midlands main lines all at once—2,700 weekend closures
over a 15-year period. Great Western Railway has
just had 10 years of electrification with sporadic weekend
closures, and that was pretty nightmarish...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
