Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con) I beg to move, That this House has
considered the Restoring Your Railway Fund. It is a pleasure to
serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Cummins. First, I thank my
colleagues on the Backbench Business Committee for agreeing to
schedule this timely debate. The name Dr Beeching evokes strong
passions even 60 years after the publication of his first report,
and the very fact that I do not have to mention the subject or the
title of the...Request free trial
(Torbay) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the Restoring Your Railway
Fund.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Cummins.
First, I thank my colleagues on the Backbench Business Committee
for agreeing to schedule this timely debate.
The name Dr Beeching evokes strong passions even 60 years after
the publication of his first report, and the very fact that I do
not have to mention the subject or the title of the report,
simply his name, speaks to the special place our railways hold in
the nation’s heart and the impact of the proposals that followed.
No other mode of transport can evoke such passion or interest,
and while more people use buses than trains, it is rare that
anyone becomes as engaged in a discussion about a new No. 3 or
No. 12 as they do in talking—at length—about the prospects of
restoring a piece of track that last saw a train long before many
of us were born.
We refer to the Beeching era, but Britain’s railways were
contracting before Beeching arrived. For example, in Devon alone,
the line to Princetown closed in 1958 and the line to Yealmpton
closed to passengers as far back as 1947, but Beeching’s first
report on reshaping Britain’s railways is, for many, the key
moment. The report has seared his name into our national memory,
and it defined an era for our railways. Of 18,000 miles of
railway, Beeching recommended that 6,000 miles be closed and
2,363 station closures, both on lines set to close and on lines
he proposed remain open.
There are lots of debates about whether different approaches
could have been tried, not least reducing costs on lines rather
than closing them, but those debates are for the rail historians.
We know that today, across Britain, there are viable schemes
ready to reconnect communities to our rail network. When people
talk about what had been the signs of decline in a
once-prosperous town, many local residents include in the list
the words, “Then the station closed.” A rail service is often
seen as a sign of literally being on track to better prospects.
Hence the excitement when a long-lost service returns.
(Sedgefield) (Con)
Ferryhill station in my constituency was removed in 1964 when I
lived there, although there is still a freight line. The station
is symptomatic of the area’s need to regenerate and redevelop.
Does my hon. Friend agree that any consideration of whether a bid
should succeed must be cognisant of the impact on the people of
the area, not just the mathematics that go with it?
I could not agree more with my hon. Friend, who is a strong
champion for his constituents on the matter. Where once there was
a station and now there is a space or an empty building, or just
freight trains trundling past, people sense that they might have
been left behind, so reopening stations, particularly in
locations such as the one he mentioned, is one of the best signs
that levelling up could offer to show that the agenda across
Government is about giving communities back what they had in the
past. We are not going to reintroduce steam trains, but we do
want to give people a modern, functional service that points
towards an aspiration for a better future.
With respect to such opportunities, the pledge in our 2019
manifesto, which forms the basis of the Government’s mandate, was
explicit:
“To help communities across the country, we will restore many of
the Beeching lines, reconnecting smaller towns such as Fleetwood
and Willenhall that have suffered permanent disadvantage since
they were removed from the rail network in the 1960s.”
In January 2020, colleagues across the House will have welcomed
the Government translating that pledge into £500 million for the
restoring your railway programme to deliver the manifesto
commitment, which I know was firm when my right hon. Friend the
Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip () was Prime Minister. I know
the Minister will be keen to repeat it today.
I want to ensure that the commitment remains firm not because I
am sentimental about the days when steam trains raced from London
Waterloo to Tavistock, but because of what we see when lines
reopen and communities reconnect. For example, the revitalisation
of the line to Okehampton has brought full passenger services to
the town for the first time in five decades. It was the first
former line to reopen under the restoring your railway programme.
In the same week that it celebrated its one-year anniversary in
November, the Dartmoor line also saw its 250,00th journey—more
than double the demand originally forecast.
Then there is the Scottish Borders railway, for which an original
target was set of 650,000 passengers in the first year, but
demand for the service exceeded expectations with almost 700,000
trips made in just the first six months of the line reopening. In
short, new lines bring new trade to the railways and provide an
attractive alternative to travel by car or coach. The Minister
saw for himself the achievements at Okehampton and the excitement
of the local community at having its train service back. We would
simply not get that with a new road junction or a bus
service.
(Penrith and The Border)
(Con)
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and congratulate him on
leading this important debate. In Cumbria we have been pushing
for the reopening of the Penrith to Keswick line and of Gilsland
station. My hon. Friend mentioned the Borders railway, which we
want extended through Longtown in my constituency and down into
Carlisle. Does he agree that opening up those projects not only
connects people to physical places, but increases economic
opportunities and access to education and empowers rural
communities?
I could not put it better. Transport systems are not just about
an academic exercise of connecting point A to point B, but about
linking communities, providing opportunities and levelling up
communities. Instead of looking back to a service that existed
until the late 1960s, we should look forward to the
opportunities. My hon. Friend is a very strong advocate for his
constituents and I know he will push the Government on that
scheme.
(Strangford) (DUP)
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
It would be rude not to give way to probably the most regular
attender at 9.30 am on a Tuesday.
I commend the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate. It is a
real pleasure to intervene on him, whom I see as a very dear
friend. My constituency used to have a railway line, but now has
no railway whatever. Does the hon. Member not agree that it makes
no sense for any constituency to have less public transport at a
time when we are encouraging people to ditch their cars and make
changes to help the environment? It takes investment. If the
Government are serious, the funding must also be serious.
The hon. Gentleman puts it well and reminds us that in the
Beeching era many communities went from having train services to
numerous destinations to literally having none. We have mentioned
the example of the Scottish Borders railway. After the closure of
the Waverley route, certain communities became some of the
furthest away from the mainline network. Train services provide
people with different choices and opportunities. It is safe to
say that the people of Strangford can be reassured that if there
is any prospect of getting a train service back to Strangford,
the hon. Gentleman will regularly pursue it in this place until
it happens.
I am conscious that there are many requests for new lines and
stations across the country. In June, the Government published a
restoring your railway fund programme update with details of all
successful and unsuccessful bids. In total, the programme update
listed 44 successful schemes, which are at different stages, and
23 schemes are being funded to develop a strategic outline
business case—one of the earlier stages in considering a
transport intervention. Thirteen schemes that had already
developed a SOBC are being supported to develop further, and
eight schemes are being delivered. Of those, the Dartmoor line
between Okehampton and Exeter has already reopened.
The schemes stretch across the country, ranging from the
Northumberland line reopening to the new Thanet Parkway station
in Kent, plus St Clears station in Wales and the White Rose
station in Yorkshire. As evidenced today, many other communities
want to join them. Many communities who were not successful at
first now hope to join them in future rounds.
In some areas the dreams of restoring a railway service will come
up against the harsh realities of previous track beds having been
lost or development having taken over where a line once cut
through. What might in the early 1970s have been a relatively
easy job of re-laying track will now mean cutting a new track bed
through previously untouched countryside. I know from my brief
time in the Department for Transport about the issues with
restoring the key section of the Varsity line between Cambridge
and Bedford, given the short-sighted decisions of past
generations to build over the old track bed. The modern realities
of development since the line closed mean a different realignment
is needed. It is interesting to note that this is one railway
that Dr Beeching proposed to keep open in his infamous report,
with the mistake of closure being clear almost from the time it
was implemented.
In many locations where enthusiasts or a local council have
sought to preserve the dream that trains would one day come back
down the track to them, reopening former lines can offer
excellent value for money. We can also benefit from the quality
of railway engineering in the Victorian era. The report on the
former line from Bere Alston to Tavistock, more than 40 years
after its closure, found that many of the key structures were in
fairly good condition, despite not having been maintained for
decades. Think of how each pound spent on the restoring your
railway programme delivers popularity and inspiration for the
local community. Then think how HS2 developers must dream of
getting anywhere near that with the tens of billions being spent
on that.
The Minister will not be surprised to hear me talk of the
opportunity to do just that in my own constituency. The former
Goodrington Sands station lies only a few hundred metres from the
railhead that marks the end of the Network Rail track, and has
done since the line from nearby Paignton station to Kingswear
closed. It is not the derelict building that some hon. Members
might now be picturing in their minds. Since 1972, it has
operated successfully as part of the Dartmouth Steam Railway,
with its platforms still in very good condition.
Goodrington station provides a great example, not just of
preserving the past, but of an opportunity for the future. Given
the Network Rail track nearby, it is possible to create a track
route, entirely separate from the operations of the steam
railway, to Goodrington from Paignton. That would allow a new
platform to be created alongside the heritage station, with
accessibility provided by stairs and a lift to the road bridge
that passes over the site. Whereas parking is limited at
Paignton, there are large car parks near Goodrington station,
which are often only used in the summer peak season.
Those ingredients, alongside the presence of a large beach and
leisure facilities around the former station, provide a tempting
chance directly to reconnect communities nearby and facilitate a
parkway-style access to the rail network. Despite the obvious
attractions of that plan, plus support from the local community,
the spirit of the Beeching era lived on in the coalition of Lib
Dem and independent councillors currently running Torbay Council,
who objected to the bid for restoring your railway funds. It was
disappointing to note their opposition, and the way they assumed
they could get an officer to write to MPs, simply demanding we
withdraw a bid, as they had said no. As some will know, such
ill-judged actions merely provoked not compliance but scorn from
me, my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes () and many local
residents.
The restoring your railway programme is not just about reopening
lines closed during the Beeching era. It is also providing
entirely new stations, such as the one being built at Marsh
Barton, which I passed on the train when I travelled up
yesterday, and the very welcome Edginswell station in Torquay,
where preparatory works are under way ahead of the main
construction work starting later this year. Having asked many
questions about that project of previous Rail Ministers, I
welcome the new stations fund and the Torquay town deal
supporting it: the first new station in Torbay since the war,
delivered by a Conservative team.
I could be here a long time, listing individual schemes and
opportunities for reopening, and I suspect we will hear quite a
few more as the debate progresses. Yet the purpose of this debate
is not just to put in a pitch for a local scheme, although this
is a good opportunity for colleagues to ensure that the Minister
has heard the exact benefits a scheme will bring for their local
area. There are a few points it would be good for the Minister to
respond to.
The first is the easiest: to confirm that the Government remain
committed to the vision of reversing Beeching-era cuts, giving
communities new train services, as set out in our 2019 manifesto,
and the £500 million previously agreed. Secondly, what work will
the Government do to support groups and MPs looking to bid where
a local council retains the spirit of the Beeching era and
decides to object, but the community is positive? Thirdly, what
assessment of the value delivered with these projects will be
used to capture the full impact for the community of being
reconnected to the rail network?
As I said at the start, the fact that we can mention one man’s
name 60 years after his report was published shows how the
railway closures affected so many communities. For the first time
in decades, many communities can now talk about railways as part
of their future, not just something they reminisce about from the
past. That is what the restoring your railway scheme is about. It
is the ultimate prize from levelling up, and it is vital that the
commitment shown to it by the Government’s 2019 manifesto
continues.
9.44am
(Tiverton and Honiton)
(LD)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Cummins. I
thank the Backbench Business Committee for facilitating the
debate.
As an Opposition politician, I might not often be heard saying
positive things about the Government or the governing party, but
I want to say some warm words about the restoring your railway
scheme, particularly as it has awarded £5 million towards the
reopening of Cullompton railway station. The developments we have
seen in Devon, including the reopening of the station at
Okehampton, are excellent; I hope Cullompton will see the same
railway renaissance as Okehampton has in the past couple of
years.
I will set out why I think it will be beneficial to Devon to have
a railway station at Cullompton and how that might also return
some benefits to the Department for Work and Pensions. Cullompton
railway station is one of 10 projects that received funding from
the restoring your railway fund in 2020. The funding was
delivered to Network Rail, which is developing a full business
case for stations at Cullompton and Wellington. I know the
Minister is aware of the initiative, not least because he kindly
agreed at Transport questions last week to visit the site when he
is next in the area. The Minister advised that I should work with
people of all political colours in the local community on the
programme, and he will be pleased to know that I am doing just
that.
Cullompton had a railway station until 5 October 1964. The
Beeching cuts, which we heard about from the hon. Member for
Torbay () and which mothballed
Cullompton and many other railway stations that day, are looked
back on with great regret from a 2023 vantage point. I suggest
that they were also regretted by the then Government, because
just 10 days after the closure of Cullompton railway station and
other stations in Devon, the Conservative party, which had been
in power for 13 years, was defeated and nearby seats fell to the
Liberal party. There is still time to reinforce the current
Government’s success in rail at Cullompton.
Recently, the right hon. Member for Central Devon () was fortunate that the Dartmoor line was the first
line to be reopened under the restoring your railway scheme. The
restoration, which was announced in January 2018 when the right
hon. Gentleman was Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has some
parallels with Cullompton. Okehampton and Cullompton are both
within commuting distance of Exeter and both have slightly more
than 10,000 people currently living in and around each town.
Cullompton has characteristics that will be attractive to some of
the Rail Minister’s colleagues in Government. It is a town with a
tight labour market and currently has vacancies across a range of
sectors, including retail, manufacturing and social care. In
Cullompton, fewer than two in 100 people are unemployed, in
contrast to the neighbouring city of Exeter, where unemployment
is greater than 3%. There are thousands of people in Exeter who
are registered unemployed and looking for work who would be able
to find jobs in Cullompton were they able to commute there. That
could reduce the cost of benefit payments to the Department for
Work and Pensions, and represent excellent value for the
taxpayer.
While Cullompton is already regarded as a key town for commuters,
plans are afoot for Culm Garden Village, which will expand
Cullompton by more than 5,000 houses and perhaps an additional
12,000 residents. The Minister will be aware that the population
of the west country has grown faster than the population of
England, but that is not a patch on the growth rate we will see
in Cullompton, which is having a deleterious effect on people’s
health. We already have an air quality management area
designation in the town of Cullompton; having a station in the
heart of the town should serve to reduce traffic on the congested
B3181.
The Minister is a real champion for railway restoration. As a
Back-Bench MP, he battled successfully for Battle, specifically
the refurbishment of its railway station. As the Minister, last
year he came to Devon to celebrate the new Dartmoor line having
its 250,000th user, as referred to by the hon. Member for Torbay,
and said in his speech at the time that the restoration
“has undone 50 years of damage”.
He is very welcome to visit us at Cullompton station to see how
little work would be required to restore the station to its
former glory and to transform a very friendly part of Devon into
an environmentally friendly one.
Several hon. Members rose—
(in the Chair)
Order. Before I call the next speaker, as we have had a number of
withdrawals, I am looking at about six minutes for each
speech.
9.49am
(Stourbridge) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Cummins. I
thank the hon. Member for Torbay () for securing the debate.
I want to talk about my Stourbridge Dasher. I invite the Minister
to Stourbridge to see for himself how important it will be to the
community. The Dasher will be transformative. It will run along
an old passenger line and extend the branch line, and restore an
important economic link. It is railway restoration at its very
best. The Dasher would reinstate passenger services on a
four-mile, freight-only branch line between Stourbridge Junction,
and Round Oak and Brierley Hill, and the terminus at Brierley
Hill would link it to the West Midlands Metro tramline extension,
which is expected to open in 2025. This has never been more
important, given that under the 2024 boundary changes Brierley
Hill will come into the Stourbridge constituency. Of 1,500 people
surveyed in my constituency, 87% were in favour of the Dasher and
would make use of it.
The Dasher would bring huge benefits. It would link Stourbridge
to the wider Black Country, opening passenger travel between some
of the region’s most deprived areas. It would be good for areas
such as Amblecote and Brierley Hill, with stations planned at
Vicarage Road and Brettell Lane, and good for jobs by increasing
the ease of travel, taking the burden off roads such as the A461,
and sparing residents from frequent traffic jams. If delivered,
this line and its stations would make a real contribution to
reinvigorating the area.
Stourbridge already has the Stourbridge Shuttle, which is pretty
impressive in itself. It connects the main line train station to
the centre of Stourbridge town and runs every 10 minutes, seven
days a week. It has an on-time train service reliability of 99.8%
most of the time, which I am sure most present would agree is
pretty impressive. Its operating costs are 50% cheaper than those
of conventional railways, and it is eco-friendly, running on
liquid petroleum fuel that is kinder to the air, which is a UK
first. It is Europe’s smallest branch line—the journey time over
the 0.8 miles is only three minutes—but while it might be small,
its track record of delivery could be extended to the Dasher.
I thank Pre Metro Operations, which brought the potential of the
Dasher to my attention. Pre Metro Operations has done a brilliant
job of putting together a business case, through work done out of
dedication and love of the branch line, and with innovative
thinking. On Friday, I am going with the Pre Metro team to a site
near Stourbridge for a demonstration of the potential Dasher. We
all have those days and visits that we just cannot wait for, and
this is one of them. I love trains anyway, but I cannot contain
my excitement over being able to see the potential of my Dasher.
I am serious—my constituents know that as well. I am genuinely
excited about the future possibilities of making the Stourbridge
Shuttle into a Dasher.
The project needs only £50,000 for an initial feasibility study
to kick it off. I do not think that is too much to ask for.
(Stroud) (Con)
My hon. Friend is doing such a good job of talking about her
railways, she makes me want to travel on them immediately. For 20
years, MPs, councils and community champions have been
campaigning similarly to reopen Stroudwater station on Bristol
Road, Stonehouse. I was proud to be the MP who secured £50,000 to
do the feasibility study, so I completely understand her passion
and pitch. We are asking for the environmental, economic,
business and tourism benefits not just for now, but for the
future. From speaking to Great Western Railway, I understand that
there is a lot of waiting before getting from Government an
understanding of what the funding pot for railway investment will
look like, given that the country’s finances are stretched at the
moment. Does my hon. Friend agree that hearing about that
investment early and having the Department for Transport work
closely with individual bids on feasibility are incredibly
valuable to all our communities?
I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. I have been waiting
some time for that £50,000. These are quick-win projects that do
so much for communities. Getting that closer link with the
Government, in particular on feasibility work, would save so much
time further down the line, even if it were to prove that the
project was not feasible. I thank her for that.
I finish as I started, by asking the Minister to come and visit
our brilliant shuttle, to see for himself that it would be even
better if we had the Stourbridge Dasher. I am sure the rewards to
all will be hugely demonstratable, but none more so than the
rewards to the community of opening up the superb branch line
once again and seeing the Stourbridge Dasher, in all its
magnificence, take to it. What is not to love?
9.54am
(Stoke-on-Trent North)
(Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Cummins. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay () on securing this very
important debate.
We have been very lucky in Stoke-on-Trent. We have managed to
secure up to £40 million from the transforming cities fund, which
will do remarkable work, and £31.7 million to improve local bus
services, create new routes to better serve the community, and
most importantly reduce the flat day fare by a third to £3.50. In
addition, my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South
() has been successful in
getting the old railway restored at Meir station. But of course,
Stoke-on-Trent always wants and deserves more. I am sure the
Minister is aware of that.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands
(), my hon. Friends the Members
for Stoke-on-Trent South and for Stoke-on-Trent Central () and I were delighted to secure £50,000 for the
feasibility study for the Stoke to Leek line service, which we
want to come back to life. I have had the pleasure of walking the
line near Milton and Baddeley Green with Councillor Dave Evans
and Councillor James Smith. There is an opportunity in our great
city to better serve an area of deprivation that has sadly high
obesity levels. There has been a jobs boom, but that area has
poor connectivity to the Ceramic Valley enterprise zone sites. We
can improve employability and create better opportunities to sell
the employment sites in our great city.
We have in our city the fantastic City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth
Form College and Stoke-on-Trent College, which serve students
from north Staffordshire, as well as Staffordshire University and
Keele University. The line would serve as a huge hub, improving
access to education, which is particularly important given that
we need more people to take levels 3 and 4 qualifications. Sadly,
we lag 8% behind the national average when it comes to the
take-up of level 3.
Since 2015, 9,000 jobs have been created under the leadership of
Councillor Abi Brown and her fantastic team at Stoke-on-Trent
City Council. The railway line could also help to decongest our
roads and improve our air quality. Stoke-on-Trent City Council
and Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council—I also represent that
area—have been tasked with solving that issue.
If we bring that train line back to life, it will save people
getting around our city an average of 25 minutes at peak times.
That is a huge benefit. More than a third of residents of the
city do not have access to a motor vehicle and are heavily
reliant on taxi services, because sadly the bus service is in
need of improvement. It is important to make that case for local
people, particularly those who live on the outskirts of our city.
In Milton, Baddeley Green and Stockton Brook, people have to get
off First Bus Potteries and get on to another bus near Endon and
Brown Edge to get to Leek. I believe Leek, which has about 25,000
residents, is the largest town in the country not to be served by
a railway station.
Nearby is the glorious Alton Towers. The Stoke to Leek line has
the potential to go through it and connect to one of this
country’s great tourist attractions. That would help build our
long-term tourism strategy, which is to have more than just
one-day visits. We are delighted to have these visitors; we had
about 6 million before the covid pandemic, but sadly only 200,000
turned into overnight stays. This railway line, which would offer
connectivity to Alton Towers and other tourist attractions around
north Staffordshire, would incentivise people to stay overnight.
That would build on the success of the Hilton building in
Stoke-on-Trent city centre, and the Goods Yard site, which is
under development thanks to the levelling up funding and will
bring more hotel space.
We have the fantastic World of Wedgwood in the constituency of my
hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South, but even better,
of course, is Middleport Pottery, which has been proud to be the
home of “The Great British Pottery Throw Down” in the past. Of
course, we also have the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery and the
Gladstone Pottery Museum. That is why it is so important that we
have the ability to boost our tourism, our education
opportunities and our employability in our city, and to better
connect our city to residents who do not have access to motor
vehicles in the way that people in a more privileged position may
traditionally have outside our great city. The line will also
help to improve the air quality in our great city. That is so
important, especially when a lot of the people who live in
Stoke-on-Trent used to work in the pots and the pits and suffer
with long-term health ailments because of the type of industry in
which they worked for so many years.
I hope that the Government remain absolutely, fully committed to
the restoring your railway fund. I hope to hear from the
Chancellor in the spring statement—I will allow him to go to the
autumn statement this year at the very latest—that he will commit
to Stoke-on-Trent and Leek getting the Stoke to Leek line back
once again.
10.00am
(Stoke-on-Trent South)
(Con)
It is an absolute pleasure to follow my hon. Friend and neighbour
the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (). I commend my hon. Friend
the Member for Torbay () on securing this important
debate on a topic that he knows we very much share an interest
in.
The restoring your railway fund is one of the best policies of
this Conservative Government, and it should be a model for future
public policy. The involvement of local Members of Parliament as
sponsors, and other key local stakeholders, has been an excellent
way of developing high-quality bids that democratically garner
local support. Infrastructure projects can often be imposed and
attract controversy, so this grassroots-up approach is far more
desirable and more likely to deliver economic and social
benefits.
As the Minister will know, the fund has provoked interest across
the country, especially in north Staffordshire, which I will
focus on. Poor transport connectivity in Stoke-on-Trent and wider
north Staffordshire is a major barrier to employment, skills and
general quality of life. A third of households in Stoke-on-Trent
have no access to a car, yet people depend on car transport
because, for many, public transport is non-existent, which
severely holds back opportunities. The strategic road network
through the city is operating at around 110% capacity and parts
of the local road network are far worse, resulting in terrible
journey reliability. Local bus operators now say that they are
often unable to run reliable services due to the levels of
congestion, and we have major air quality problems.
As I have said in this Chamber before, it is important to
recognise that north Staffordshire is one of the few parts of the
country that were not only hit by the Beeching axe but by further
reductions in rail services under the last Labour Government.
Services to Barlaston and Wedgwood ceased as part of the west
coast main line modernisation in 2004. Such was the
short-sightedness of the last Labour Government that Etruria
station was permanently closed in 2005, with the platforms
completely removed in 2008, to shave but a few minutes off
high-speed Pendolino services. Thankfully, times have changed and
we now recognise the benefits of encouraging more people back on
to our railways, but much needs to be done to restore much of our
local connectivity.
The Conservative Government have been extremely supportive of
improving local transport for Stoke-on-Trent. As we heard, we
have secured £40 million through the transforming cities fund for
local bus and rail improvements and £31 million through the bus
service improvement plan, as well as funding towards our
restoring your railways projects. The first of these to
reopen—Meir station, which was closed in 1966—is now progressing
to an advanced stage, having secured a further £1.7 million to
develop the full business case and detailed delivery study. I was
pleased to meet representatives from DfT, Network Rail and the
city council just before Christmas, and it was great to hear how
well our plans are progressing.
Reopening a station in Meir could have a transformative impact on
the local community. Both wards in Meir are identified by the
all-party parliamentary group for ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods as
being in the top 225 most left-behind neighbourhoods in the
entire country. A key problem in Meir is poor transport. More
than 40% of households in Meir North do not have a car; public
transport is non-existent in parts of the area, and Meir suffers
from significant road congestion and air pollution. The lack of
effective public transport in Meir is a major barrier to
employment and skills opportunities and severely restricts
quality of life. Reopening the station in Meir would make a huge
difference to a part of the country where levelling up matters
most, by opening up a wealth of skilled employment opportunities
and massively enhancing access to local colleges and
universities. If we secure the full backing of the Government,
work could start on site in 2024, and our plans would be
relatively easy and cheap to deliver.
Alongside that, I have been working closely with my hon. Friends
the Members for Stoke-on-Trent North and for Stoke-on-Trent
Central (), as well as my right hon. Friend the Member for
Staffordshire Moorlands (), to reopen the Stoke to Leek
line. The project is not as advanced as the Meir project, but we
were delighted to receive funding from Government that enabled us
to submit our excellent strategic outline business case in
November. The project would see not only the restoration of rail
services to Leek for the first time since 1965, but the reopening
of a number of stations throughout Stoke-on-Trent and the
Moorlands, including one at Fenton Manor in my constituency. It
would significantly help to level up opportunities and massively
enhance access to work and skills, as well as tourism. The
extremely poor local transport connectivity would be transformed,
addressing significant road congestion and air pollution.
Currently, the fastest train journey from Stoke-on-Trent to
London Euston takes around an hour and 24 minutes, which is
quicker than travelling the 12 miles from Leek to Stoke station
by public transport at peak times. That journey time would be
improved with further HS2 services connecting us into London, but
the benefits will be severely limited if we do not address our
chronically poor local transport. Train services from Stoke to
Leek would only take between 23 minutes and 25 minutes—around a
third of the current peak-time journey times on public
transport.
Reopening the line would make a huge difference to communities
along the route, opening up major new employment opportunities
and helping to deliver the economic growth our area needs, as
well as taking vehicles off our roads. I strongly encourage the
Minister and the Department to back the Stoke to Leek line moving
to the next stage—a full business case and detailed delivery
study.
The restoring your railway fund projects to reopen Meir Station
and the Stoke to Leek line are taking place alongside the work
being done by the West Midlands Rail Executive to look at
reopening Trentham station, and the vision of Stoke-on-Trent City
Council—led by the excellent Councillor Abi Brown—for a properly
integrated light rail network for the Potteries, creating a
properly integrated public transport network. I urge the
Government to give us their full backing to ensure we can
properly level up opportunities in Stoke-on-Trent and wider North
Staffordshire.
10.07am
(Darlington) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Cummins. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay () on securing this important
debate. Representing Darlington, the birthplace of the railways,
I have been pleased to have many opportunities to raise
railway-related issues in my time in this place. This includes
campaigning to save Locomotion No. 1, getting our railway bridges
painted, pushing for tactile paving at Darlington Bank Top
station, leading the case for an overhaul of North Road station,
stopping London North Eastern Railway from cutting services and
calling for livestreaming to British Transport Police of onboard
CCTV.
Darlington has a rich rail heritage—indeed, it is the starting
point of the world’s railway story. As we approach the
bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington railway in 2025, there
could be no better time than now to be having this debate. As we
have already heard, this year marks the 60th anniversary of the
Beeching cuts, which saw the decimation of many of our railway
lines, the impact of which we still feel today with the loss of
connectivity it brought about.
Levelling up is about righting the wrongs of the past and
reversing underinvestment in regions such as the north-east,
which has been overlooked by Governments of all colours. I am
proud that the transformation of Darlington’s wonderful Bank Top
station—a cathedral of Victorian railway engineering—backed with
£139 million of Government investment, is adding additional
platform capacity and connectivity to our regions. The restoring
your railway fund is a further way that the Government are
levelling up, helping to unlock connectivity and restore
long-lost connections with communities, for which, even after the
passage of so much time, people have a great affinity.
I and many other north-east colleagues also are pushing for the
Leamside line to be restored, which will do so much to unlock
capacity on the east coast main line. Darlington connects to the
Bishop line, and in turn connects to the Weardale line. Working
with colleagues, such as my hon. Friends the Members for
Sedgefield () and for Bishop Auckland
(), and primarily our hon.
Friend the Member for North West Durham (Mr Holden), strategic
overview case funding for the Durham Dales line has been secured.
I know that my hon. Friend the Member for North West Durham has
also secured business case funding for feasibility of the Consett
to Tyne line.
These projects to restore our railway links can help to deliver
public transport that is fit for purpose, getting people to where
employment opportunities are and opening up communities that are
currently disconnected to new investment opportunities. Further,
the lines would serve some of the areas of the north-east with
the lowest rates of car ownership, where there is heavy reliance
on public transport. It is not right that people are further
disadvantaged by matters outside their control. Reopening the
lines would go a long way towards ending this disadvantage and
help to boost the local economy.
Finally, I want to mention North Road station in my constituency,
which sits on the Bishop line. The station, on the original
Stockton to Darlington railway line, has a number of problems,
including the platform height and depth, inappropriate furniture
and fencing, and the shameful waste of the use of the historic
canopy for shelter. I firmly believe that we can do better, and I
am pleased to be working with Network Rail, Northern, the Bishop
line, Darlington Borough Council and Tees Valley Combined
Authority to secure solutions and funding for those issues. That
sits alongside the £35 million investment in Darlington’s
flagship Railway Heritage Quarter, which adjoins North Road
station. The preservation and improvement of the station is a
hugely important project and would complement the work already
being undertaken to showcase Darlington’s rich rail heritage.
In the north-east, all rails lead to Darlington. The restoration
of the lines I have mentioned would be hugely beneficial for
improving local connections and boosting business, employment,
education and leisure opportunities for my constituents and
residents across the north-east, and I am grateful to have been
able to put these points on the record.
10.12am
(Ynys Môn) (Con)
It is a pleasure to speak in this important debate and to serve
under your chairmanship, Mrs Cummins. I congratulate my hon.
Friend the Member for Torbay () on securing the debate and
thank the Backbench Business Committee for facilitating it.
When I was first elected by the island as the Member of
Parliament for Ynys Môn, some of the earliest contact I had was
from constituents who were concerned about the fate of the
disused Gaerwen to Amlwch railway line. That 17.5-mile line came
about as a result of the Anglesey Central Railway Act 1863 and
was operational by the late 1860s. It connected Amlwch in the
north of Anglesey to the island’s market town of Llangefni, and
joined the main line to Holyhead at Gaerwen.
Amlwch was once the second largest town in Wales, with a port and
a mine at Parys mountain. When the railway opened, the copper and
minerals mined there were transported off the island by rail,
instead of by sea. However, after nearly 200 years, the line was
closed to passengers as part of the Beeching cuts in 1964. It
continued to service the needs of the Octel bromine plant in
Amlwch until 1993, at which point it was closed, and it has since
lain unused. Some parts of the line are largely intact today, and
one can still find old stations next to the track. In other
places, the track has been removed or is very overgrown.
Broadly speaking, there are two schools of thought on the line: a
company called Anglesey Central Railway Ltd wants to revert the
line to a railway and was awarded the lease to the line by
Network Rail in April 2021, and a group called Lôn Las Môn wants
to turn the line into a multi-use path for active travel. I
believe that the line is a huge community asset that is currently
untapped, and it should be put to a use that the community
supports, be it rail or an active travel path.
To try to provide some clarity on the matter, in March 2021 I and
Transport for Wales supported a bid to the restoring your railway
ideas fund in the third and final round of funding. We were
successful; ours was the only bid from Wales to receive funding
in all three rounds. Transport for Wales was awarded £50,000,
which was matched by an additional £50,000 from the Welsh
Government, to produce a feasibility study on the future use of
the line. The results of the study have now been submitted to the
Department for Transport and are under consideration. The study
found that re-establishing the line would cost £144 million for
heavy rail or £93 million for light rail. An active travel path
would clearly be deliverable at a lower cost.
Anglesey Central Railway has a team of volunteers progressing
physical works and vegetation clearance. It is working towards
the key milestone of a Transport and Works Act order—a TWAO—with
a deadline of April 2023 set in its lease. It is likely that the
deadline will be extended, particularly given the challenges and
impact of the pandemic on its work. However, the anticipated
costs of rail are significant, particularly in the context of the
£500 million announced in 2020 for the restoring your railway
fund.
Time will tell whether the Department for Transport considers
that the project ticks the restoring your railway boxes of
levelling up, reconnecting communities, providing socioeconomic
and transport benefits, and being deliverable. The Minister has
informed me that his decision will be made by the end of spring.
My constituents are keen to know, and I am regularly contacted
for updates. I reiterate my invitation to the Minister to visit
Ynys Môn —if he brings his wellies, I can show him the disused
line.
You don’t need wellies in Stourbridge.
When he sums up, will the Minister reaffirm his commitment to
make a decision by the end of spring so that my constituents can
get a clearer understanding of the future of the Gaerwen to
Amlwch line?
10.16am
(North Devon) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mrs Cummins. I
congratulate my fellow Devon MP and hon. Friend the Member for
Torbay () on bringing forward this
important debate. I always appreciate the opportunity to talk
about the challenges of rural transport.
In 1964, northern Devon lost the train line between Bideford and
Barnstaple, although the tracks were not lifted until 20 years
later. The area now boasts the fantastic Tarka trail for walkers
and cyclists. While the trail is a great resource for local
communities and visitors alike, the distances across rural areas
and the changeable weather mean that it is not a practical
commute for all but the most hardy and fit commuters.
Over the past few years, hundreds of homes have been built
between Bideford and Barnstaple, with hundreds more planned. We
absolutely need that housing, but it puts pressure on our
infrastructure. In rural North Devon, our transport
infrastructure is limited; for the 10-mile route between Bideford
and Barnstaple, it essentially consists of the B3233 through
Fremington or the single-carriageway A39. Without traffic, the
journey should take 15 to 20 minutes by car or 29 minutes on the
bus, but commuter traffic often pushes those times up to well
over an hour, causing much frustration and clogging the roads on
a daily basis. Bringing back a train connection between Bideford
and Barnstaple would do much to prevent that congestion, and it
would give communities affordable and environmentally friendly
ways to reach Barnstaple and further afield by connecting the
route all the way to Exeter.
I am fortunate that I have an active group that has put a
significant amount of work into the possible rail line. Part of
the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, the Tarka Rail
Association is one of the longest-established community rail
partnerships in the country. Since its formation in 1977, it has
championed the interests of users of the Tarka line, its 12
stations and their communities between Exeter and Barnstaple. In
2021, the association formally adopted the ACE Rail campaign,
named after the Atlantic Coast Express, which until 1964 came
from London Waterloo to serve Barnstaple, with an onward portion
to Bideford in the constituency of my right hon. and learned
Friend the Member for Torridge and West Devon (Sir ).
ACE Rail now stands for the Atlantic Coast to Exeter railway, and
the campaign seeks a transformational rail service linking
northern Devon with the county capital by doubling the service
frequency from hourly to half-hourly and increasing the speed of
journeys to compete with cars, with an additional limited-stop
express service connecting Exeter Central with Barnstaple in 50
minutes rather than the present 75 minutes. The difference that
the development of the line would bring cannot be understated.
While it would obviously lessen congestion, it would go further
by connecting the area with opportunities that are currently out
of reach. We already know that limited transport options limit
rural productivity. If we support rural productivity and improve
connections to these areas, we could add an estimated £43 billion
to our economy.
As co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for cycling and
walking, I am keen that as many people as possible have access to
spaces where they feel confident to travel actively. Due to the
narrow nature of a few pinch points on the route, it would not be
possible to maintain the Tarka trail as it is and to develop a
new rail line. I am keen that, instead of sticking to the
historical, mainly coastal route, we look at a different line
that more directly links Barnstaple to Bideford.
Having previously submitted a bid for Combe Rail, which would
have connected Barnstaple to Braunton—sadly, that bid did not
move forward—I know that there is huge support in North Devon for
expanding our rail network. That previous bid lacked a viable
connection to the main Barnstaple station, but the Bideford
connection would directly join the two largest towns in northern
Devon and go on to Exeter. We need to find ways to ensure that
rural Britain’s connectivity does not lag even further behind our
more urban constituencies.
I hope that the Department considers reopening the restoring your
railway fund to new bids. My North Devon constituency would
benefit considerably from the route I mentioned. I hope that the
Minister takes that ask seriously—he is also very welcome in
North Devon, and I would always bring wellies—so that my
community can reduce its reliance on cars and take advantage of
the many benefits that the train line could bring.
10.20am
(Slough) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship again, Mrs
Cummins. I congratulate the hon. Member for Torbay () on securing this important
debate on the restoring your railway fund via the Backbench
Business Committee. I commend all the hon. Members who have
spoken so passionately on behalf of their constituents about
exactly why their areas deserve funding for railway lines and how
that would help to boost local economies and reinvigorate local
communities.
The restoring your railway scheme has noble aims of connecting
long-neglected towns and villages to the railways and investing
in local infrastructure. Indeed, successful bids can deliver real
opportunities for locals. However, the scheme’s execution, just
like that of the so-called levelling-up funding across our
nation, has been a competitive, chaotic and careless mess. Sadly,
the reality of the scheme is that it barely scratches the
surface. I commend the principle of expanding our network, but
the fund fails to tackle the major issues that affect UK rail. It
lacks vision, coherence and a long-term plan. The restoring your
railway fund seems to be an apt metaphor for this Conservative
Government.
The reality facing passengers is that train services are later,
less frequent and more expensive than ever. Piecemeal extensions
of lines and renovations of stations provide a select few with
improved services, but without a comprehensive transport plan or
vision, I fear that the projects will not reach their full
potential. The Government are failing to deliver even this paltry
offering. When £500 million was allocated to the scheme in
January 2020, the then Transport Secretary, the right hon. Member
for Welwyn Hatfield (), stated that delivering it
would ensure that, after the Beeching cuts,
“more than half a century of isolation is undone.”
However, just last week, the current rail Minister told the
Transport Committee that we should manage our expectations, and
noted that it is unlikely that the Government will be able to
deliver most of the funding bids. Will the Minister clarify which
schemes are at risk? The scheme looks like another perfect
example of this Conservative Government over-promising and
under-delivering.
Instead of slapdash spending and flashy competitions, our
railways need a proper long-term strategy and leadership. We need
proper investment. The Government’s strategy is equivalent to
keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for the best. Perhaps
that is their calling card, given their shambolic handling of the
recent rail strikes. The future of our transport is too important
to leave to chance. Under this Government, there is little
comprehensive strategy. They have demonstrated that clearly with
Great British Railways. Since its launch, we have been told that
GBR will revitalise our railways, improve our services and
advance our infrastructure, but what do we hear from the
Government today? Absolutely nothing. After all this time, we
have not even heard where the organisation might be based, and
Ministers have admitted that there is no prospect of any GBR
legislation in the transport Bill in this parliamentary
Session.
What about HS2? What happened to the more than 60 promises made
by Ministers on the delivery of the eastern leg? HS2 will not be
delivered in full. What about delivering Northern Powerhouse Rail
in full? How about an annual rolling programme of electrification
of our railway lines? And where is the annual rail network
enhancements pipeline?
To make matters worse, after 13 years of cuts, cuts, cuts, we are
being promised even more cuts. Network Rail is being forced to
make £4 billion of efficiencies in the next few years, and it has
been reported that train operating companies expect to cut their
budgets by over 10%. It does not take an industry expert to know
what that will mean: fewer services, further increases in fares,
and job cuts.
Our railways provide a unique opportunity to connect our nations
and regions. With the right investment and vision, we can unleash
the economic potential of our great towns and cities. I am sure
that is a sentiment the new Rail Minister agrees with, so perhaps
he could enlighten us about his long-term vision for tackling
regional disparities across our railways and about whether he,
unlike his predecessor, hopes to offer more than just
short-sighted contests and managed decline.
10.26am
The Minister of State, Department for Transport ()
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Cummins. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay () on securing this important
debate on the restoring your railway fund. Like me, he has a
passionate interest in the future of our railways, and I pay
tribute to him as my predecessor.
My hon. Friend and other hon. Members will know that the £500
million restoring your railway fund was announced in January
2020, with the aim of delivering on our manifesto commitment of
levelling up and beginning a process of reopening lines and
stations in England and Wales that had previously been closed.
This investment is being used to explore and deliver on how we
reconnect communities, regenerate local economies and improve
access to jobs, homes and education opportunities.
We have already seen that in action, as many hon. Members have
mentioned—not least those who represent Devon. I was delighted to
travel to Devon last November to help celebrate the first
anniversary of the restoration of the Dartmoor line between
Exeter and Okehampton. That was the very first reopening under
the restoring your railway manifesto commitment. It was delivered
on time and on budget, and I am pleased to say that the restored
service has been hugely popular. Over 250,000 new journeys have
been recorded on the Dartmoor line in its first year. I was
heartened to meet members of the local community and to hear how
the reinstated line has improved their lives and is boosting
local businesses, college numbers and tourism.
Another restoring your railway scheme, which I plan to visit in
the next month or so, is the Northumberland line. It received £34
million of funding in January 2021, which has enabled track to be
upgraded for passenger services. Once open, the Northumberland
line will reintroduce direct passenger trains between south-east
Northumberland and the centre of Newcastle, improving access to
jobs, leisure and learning, with services likely to start in
2024. The area has been identified as being in the top 10% of
most deprived areas nationally, and it has the lowest rates of
regional car ownership, with poor public transport options into
Newcastle.
Will my hon. Friend give way?
I will give way briefly, but I want to take time to respond to
every hon. Member.
I thank the Minister for giving way. On the point about levelling
up communities, will he ensure that projects such as Meir
station, which has so much potential to level up communities, are
considered favourably and that that ability to level up areas is
considered in the assessment process, to ensure that levelling-up
factors determine which projects get the go-ahead and move
forward to full development?
I thank my hon. Friend for his point and for his work on the
Transport Committee. I will indeed look at the issue in that
regard. It is important that the business case has a good
cost-benefit ratio, but it is not just the direct return on money
that matters; following the reform of the Green Book rules, one
also needs to consider—this is great news—what projects do for
regeneration and decarbonisation, and these projects deliver on
both fronts.
As hon. Members will appreciate, the restoring your railway fund
is heavily over-subscribed. My Department received nearly 200
bids—200 excellent bids—to the ideas fund element of the
programme alone. We also reviewed proposals whose business cases
were already in their advanced stages, such as the Northumberland
line and the Bristol to Portishead line, along with existing
proposals to introduce a number of new stations under the new
stations fund element.
On the points raised by the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi), I
gently remind him that eight schemes under the restoring your
railway fund are being delivered; 13 are progressing past the
strategic outline business case towards their full business case;
and 23 projects have been taken through the ideas fund stage. So
I did not recognise the part of his speech where he said that not
much appeared to have been delivered. And one of my hon. Friends
said, the beauty of this fund is that one gains the buy-in of the
local community, local Members of Parliament lead things, and
schemes are decided from the grassroots up, not from the top
down, which I dare say would be more the line of thinking of the
hon. Member for Slough.
Mr Dhesi
Will the Minister give way?
I will not give way, because I have quite a lot to go
through.
I appreciate that many hon. Members—particularly those who have
sponsored individual proposals—will have received disappointing
news along the way about their schemes not progressing under the
restoring your railway programme, although hopefully with
constructive and detailed feedback. I hope that the process has
been helpful in allowing promoters of projects all over the
country to develop their cases.
The hon. Member for Slough also mentioned my contribution to last
week’s Transport Committee, which I was very pleased to attend.
As I mentioned, we need to be mindful of the fact that it will
not be possible for all schemes in the restoring your railway
portfolio to progress to the next stage of development. The fact
is that we do not have a limitless budget; indeed, although
schemes may show promise at an early stage of their business
case, some may not be able to cover their operational costs in
the long term, and we should not add greater cost to the
railways, given how stretched the finances are. When one looks at
the schemes that are already being delivered or that are moving
to the full business case, one gets quickly to £500 million
halfway down the list, so I do want to manage expectations. At
the same time, however, that demonstrates that we are getting on
with things and spending the fund’s money. We should also be
mindful of the wider context of the rail portfolio, where all
projects face increasing costs for a variety of reasons,
particularly inflation.
Hon. Members should know that I have asked my officials to carry
out a review of all the schemes in the restoring your railway
portfolio to prioritise the most viable projects for the next
stage. That is particularly important in the light of the
remaining budget we have available, so that we deliver the most
we can under the challenging financial constraints we all have to
live with. I emphasise that the process will be driven by data,
expertise and careful consideration—that goes back to the third
point my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay made, about how we
will determine matters. I also assure hon. Members waiting to
hear back about bids made to the second and third rounds of the
ideas fund element of restoring your railway that those bids are
being fully and fairly considered as part of the overall review
process.
I want now to respond to the excellent points, cases and pitches
that have been made this morning. First, with regard to my hon.
Friend the Member for Sedgefield (), the Ferryhill project
received further funding in June 2022. Sedgefield station is a
possible additional stop between Ferryhill and Middlesbrough, and
it is under consideration.
I thank the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton () for his kind words. As he
noted, the Wellington and Cullompton project is progressing to a
full business case, and a decision will be made once that has
been finalised.
In her brilliant speech, my hon. Friend the Member for
Stourbridge () made a pitch for Stourbridge
and Round Oak, and it is hard—wellies or no wellies—to resist the
points that she made. I know that the bid was not successful in
the first ideas round stage, and I hope there has been feedback
about what more can be done. I am happy to meet her to go through
matters, and I really note—as should her constituents—the
passionate pitch she has made.
My hon. Friend the Member for Stroud () referred to the
Stonehouse Bristol Road station. The Department is reviewing
strategic outline business case, and we will get back to her.
As ever, brilliant speeches were made by my hon. Friends the
Members for Stoke-on-Trent North () and for Stoke-on-Trent
South (), who made a great pitch for
the Stoke-Leek line. That is an ideas fund 3 project, and the
strategic outline business case is being reviewed by the
Department. I know that my hon. Friends will keep on at me in
that regard, and my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent
South should be assured that Meir station has been funded to full
business case. That was announced in June 2022.
The Leamside project is championed by my hon. Friend the Member
for Darlington (); it is also being talked
about outside this place, and I was delighted to meet Members
from across the north-east yesterday in that regard. My hon.
Friend specifically mentioned the Darlington to Weardale project.
That is also in ideas fund 3. We are reviewing the strategic
outline business case, and I thank him for the passionate points
he made to champion the project.
Every time there is a rail debate, my hon. Friend the Member for
Ynys Môn () is here making the case
for her constituents. Despite the spelling of my first name, I
will not try to pronounce the names of the projects, but I will
tell her, more importantly, that the strategic outline business
case, having gone through ideas fund 3, is being reviewed. I am
already on my way to see her with regard to other projects, and I
am sure I will bring the wellies and we will tramp through. To
continue the welly references, my hon. Friend the Member for
North Devon () is a real champion for
transport and Combe rail. I know it was unsuccessful in the ideas
fund, but I want to talk with her to find out what more we can
do.
I want to respond to two other points made by my hon. Friend the
Member for Torbay. On what happens when local stakeholders do not
support a bid, the beauty of these applications is that we want
people to be able to crack on at pace. Obviously, it is
challenging when one part of the stakeholder community is not
willing to support a bid. That applies in particular if a
planning authority is involved. I note the points made by my hon.
Friend, who comes up with some brilliant ideas and suggestions. I
hope his council will think again and join the local stakeholder
community in supporting his bid.
My hon. Friend also asked me to recommit to the fund. I recommit
to that fund; it is a brilliant scheme that allows MPs and
community members to get involved and get back the railways they
lost many years ago. I want to finish by congratulating him
again—
Dr Hudson
Will the Minister give way?
I will not, if my hon. Friend does not mind. I want to leave time
for my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay.
I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate, and I hope I have
assured him and other hon. Members that we are taking a rigorous
approach to assessing the projects. In terms of those being taken
forward, I want to ensure that the projects that will deliver the
greatest benefit for the community succeed.
10.37am
This has been a welcome debate, although I do not think I should
take the 22 minutes that are still available for what is supposed
to be a short winding-up speech. I am particularly grateful for
the Minister’s replies about the Government’s continuing
commitment to the scheme overall and to the budget, particularly
given some recent press speculation.
The railways seem to be in a different position today, compared
with what we saw in the past. Given some of the comments made
during the debate, I am sure the Minister has, like me, been
reflecting on the fact that it is only 17 years ago that a
Transport Secretary was saying that the railways
“can’t be in the business of carting fresh air around the
country”.
That was widely interpreted as potentially heralding another
round of Beeching-style cuts, whereby we would build a big new
railway in the form of HS2 but shut down rural branch lines. It
is great to hear from my hon. Friend the Minister the positivity
and vision about the future of the railways, and that they really
connect communities and are not just a transport scheme that sits
in aspic.
Dr Hudson
I congratulate my hon. Friend again on securing the debate. Does
he agree that programmes such as reopening the Penrith to Keswick
line, reopening Gilsland station and extending the Borders
railway through Longtown to Carlisle would feed into the west
coast main line? Should not the Government take the two-pronged
approach of restoring those links and holding Avanti West Coast
to account for the unacceptable service on the west coast main
line?
I am conscious that I could probably start a whole new debate by
getting on to the subject of Avanti trains and their performance.
However, I agree that the line brings a sense of Union
connectivity; communities in the borders areas do not operate on
the basis of the political dividing line between England and
Scotland, but very much work together. Reopening the railway line
my hon. Friend mentioned would be a great sign of that, and I
know that he will continue to be a major champion of it.
We should reflect on the fact that there is the potential for a
renaissance in our railways. It would have been easy today to
focus on current disputes and not to look at the great future we
have. We are seeing major investment and large-scale
electrification on our rail network for the first time in
decades. People can again look forward to a railway being part of
their future, and not just something that their grandad or
grandmother tells them about using in the past.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the Restoring Your Railway Fund.
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