Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to improve
rail infrastructure in the north of England.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport () (Con)
My Lords, this Government will be investing more than £35 billion
in rail over the spending review period, including rail
enhancements and vital renewals to improve passenger journeys and
connectivity across the country, focusing on the Midlands and the
north to level up the economy. Furthermore, the Government have
today published our independent rail plan, a £96 billion
programme to transform services in the Midlands and the
north.
(LD)
My Lords, there has not been a major new rail line in the north
of England since the Victorians. The Government promised to
change that. Northern Powerhouse Rail was announced seven years
ago, and the Government have re-announced it 60 times, but
today’s announcement turns its back on that. Does the Minister
accept that haphazard dollops of money—a scattergun approach to
rail upgrades—will not create a transformation, and that
cancelling the HS2 eastern leg is seen in cities such as
Sheffield, York, Leeds and Bradford as nothing else than another
broken promise?
(Con)
I advise the noble Baroness to read the documents, which, when I
left my office just now, had not actually been published. If she
were to look at the integrated rail plan, she would see that it
is comprehensive and very well thought through. It sets out
exactly how the different pots of money will be used to create
the sort of system that delivers for people in the north far
sooner than other plans were going to. It also saves the taxpayer
billions of pounds.
The Lord Speaker ()
I call the noble Lord, .
Noble Lords
Hear, hear.
(Con)
My Lords, I think I should say that I am very grateful for this
further opportunity to speak. If, as it now appears, the
Government are backing away from large-scale rail infrastructure
projects in the north in favour of less-costly targeted schemes,
does this allow other regions, such as the east of England, to
dare to hope that the damage they have suffered from the Beeching
cuts will be reversed sooner rather than later?
(Con)
My noble friend is not quite right to say that the Government are
backing away from away from large-scale projects, as the IRP—when
he is able to read it—will demonstrate to him. However, my noble
friend is right that Network Rail has recently completed a study
on the west Anglia main line and we are considering its findings.
Network Rail is required to conduct similar studies for all parts
of the network, and these provide helpful advice to government on
potential investments for the future.
(Lab)
Has the Minister seen the front-page banner headline in today’s
Yorkshire Post? It says: “PM breaks his own rail pledge.” I want
to ask a question about Leeds—and I gladly declare to the House
what you might call a family connection. To be practical, can the
Minister explain what impact today’s plans are going to have on a
station such as Leeds where, as I understand it, HS2 would have
had the effect of freeing up platforms for much-needed extra
capacity? Without HS2, the existing platforms are going to have
to cope with all existing and future demands.
(Con)
My Lords, it is very difficult to have a sensible discussion on
this topic on the basis of front pages of the media. It is
impossible that the noble Viscount has been able have a look at
the documents which, as we know are being published, possibly as
we speak. However, I can assure him that we are well aware that
Leeds is an incredibly important station. It is the fourth
busiest in the country outside London. Passenger demand has
increased by 30% over the last 10 years and the Government are
committing to £100 million to look at the options for how to run
HS2 services to Leeds, to build capacity and also to finally
develop and deliver a mass transit system for Leeds.
(LD)
I have a little quiz for the Minister. I am sure she will be able
to come up with the right answer, but here goes. Which city has
half a million people, considerable deprivation, a train service
that takes over 20 minutes at just over 30 miles an hour to go
nine miles to take people to jobs and connect them to the rest of
the country and where 74% of jobseekers give poor transport links
as a major barrier to getting on in life? Having named the
city—and I am sure the Minister will be able to—perhaps she will,
since she is so excited about the integrated rail plan, be able
to confirm that that city is going to have its brand- new railway
station which will give it the connectivity it needs and
deserves.
(Con)
My Lords, I have failed. I hear from behind me Halifax.
Noble Lords
Bradford!
(Con)
Bradford—ah, when the noble Baroness has been able to read the
documents that are about to be published, she will see in there
that we will be electrifying the route from Bradford to Leeds.
The journey time will be hugely more reliable—it will take 12
minutes.
(Lab)
The economy of the West Midlands, and Birmingham in particular,
has been boosted by the construction and pending completion of
the fast new rail service that is HS2. Despite what the Minister
has been seeking to say, it appears that Leeds and the local West
Yorkshire economy will now be denied the estimated full £54
billion of economic benefits of their HS2 link. Leeds, for
example, will be a less attractive venue than it would have been
for new and expanding businesses without its promised high-speed
rail links. Northern Powerhouse Rail delivered in full was also
set to deliver £22 billion for northern economies, including
Bradford, by 2060, according to a report by Mott MacDonald. What
is the Government’s estimate of the loss of projected economic
benefits to Leeds and the West Yorkshire economy of the decision
to backtrack on previous promises on the HS2 high-speed rail link
to Leeds and on full delivery of Northern Powerhouse Rail? What
is the loss of those economic benefits that were projected?
(Con)
As the noble Lord will see when he gets to read the documents
that are being published today, a huge number of projects are
being brought together, and so many of those are around Leeds. It
is the case that the core part of Northern Powerhouse Rail will
be constructed, and that will provide those fast links through to
Manchester. It is the case that there will be significant
upgrades to the east coast main line and, of course, there will
be electrification of the Midlands main line. Combining that with
the construction of a mass transit system, I think, somehow, that
Leeds is going to be all right.
(Con)
My Lords, I look forward to reading today’s document, and I hope
it is good news for the north and the Midlands. I appreciate that
I am a lone voice on this matter but, given that HS2 has been the
disaster that everybody thought it would be, is doing huge damage
to the environment, is going to bring little benefit to anybody
and is costing now, or is supposed to cost, £150 billion and
counting, could the Government not consider—if they cannot scrap
it, which I think they should, even though it has cost money
already—pruning it back seriously as quickly as possible and
using the money saved and the expertise gained to look after
railways in the West Midlands and the north of England?
(Con)
I suppose we are doing a small amount of what would make my noble
friend happy. We have looked at the different options. I would be
the first person to stand there and warmly welcome a brand-new,
big, expensive, shiny rail system— I love them. However,
sometimes they take many decades to build, and they can be very
expensive, and sometimes they just fly by various communities.
What we have done is look at the amount of money that we have,
the options that we have and the opportunities that we have to
join up many more of the communities that were being missed out
by previous plans. I am sure when we come back to discuss the
integrated rail plan, we can go into that in more detail.
(Lab)
Can the Minister confirm that upgrading an existing Victorian
railway as opposed to building a brand-new railway is not a
pain-free option? It will lead inevitably to weekend closures,
disruptions to services, replacement bus services and all the
paraphernalia of building a railway while you are trying to run
one at the same time. How long will this disruption continue? Can
the Minister also please tell us why it takes us far longer to
build high-speed railways in this country compared with all our
competitor countries and longer even than it took the Victorians
who built them with picks and shovels?
(Con)
The noble Lord is quite right to highlight the disruption caused
by construction. It is the case, whether you are upgrading the
east coast main line or, indeed, constructing a brand-new,
HS2-type railway that there is disruption. We try to keep the
disruption to the minimum. Obviously, when the RNEP is published
and all of the programme is set out, we will be able to see how
long each element of the plan is going to take and when the
disruption will happen. Of course, the Government will try to
minimise that as much as possible.
