Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con) It is a great pleasure to start
the new year by talking about something that this Parliament helped
to create and establish all those years ago. We approved the
legislation that enabled private railways such as Brunel’s Great
Western to exist and to flourish. However, we have not had much
debate recently about what has effectively been a creeping
nationalisation since the pandemic. Recent rhetoric has not really
recognised the success of...Request free
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(Gloucester) (Con)
It is a great pleasure to start the new year by talking about
something that this Parliament helped to create and establish all
those years ago. We approved the legislation that enabled private
railways such as Brunel’s Great Western to exist and to flourish.
However, we have not had much debate recently about what has
effectively been a creeping nationalisation since the pandemic.
Recent rhetoric has not really recognised the success of the
private railways that were created, or indeed the success of the
privatisation of those railways more recently, which led to a
107% increase in passenger journeys, a 32% increase in passenger
services, and a 145% increase in passenger revenue. At the
moment, the situation is that the Department for Transport is
really in control of the railway operators, including Great
Western, and His Majesty’s Treasury takes the risk, with
passenger frustration over the last few months increasing during
a long period of train driver strikes.
But let me start at the beginning. All of us here share being
part of the Great Western geography; we are linked by our
constituencies to Paddington station, that railway cathedral
graced by statues of the founding genius, Isambard Kingdom
Brunel—what a name—Paddington bear, and a soldier in the
trenches, symbolic of the 3,312 employees of Great Western who
died in two world wars. We surely all recognise the engineering
achievements of the Box tunnel, or even Kemble tunnel, the
architecture of Bristol Temple Meads, and the social vision of
the Great Western Railway’s village in Swindon, which led to the
opening of the main line from Paddington to Bristol in 1841, and
the fastest trains, such as the Flying Truro, which reached 100
miles an hour 30 years before the Flying Scotsman—
(in the Chair)
Order. The sitting is suspended for 15 minutes for a
Division.
4.32pm
Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.
4.50pm
On resuming—
As I was saying, the network of Great Western Railway today
stretches from Pembroke Dock to Falmouth Docks, from Portsmouth
to Gatwick and to Hereford. The GWR railway network now runs more
than 1,600 services a day, with more than 80 million passenger
journeys. That, of course, is significantly down on the pre-covid
figure, which was almost 100 million.
(Slough) (Lab)
I congratulate the hon. Member on securing today’s debate. I
recently met the GWR managing director Mark Hopwood and his team
because many of my Slough constituents were angered and
frustrated by the reduction in the number of fast trains going to
and from Slough. Given that Slough is a huge business hub, does
the hon. Member agree that it is incumbent on the Government and
GWR to ensure, for the benefit of the local, regional and
national economy, that we have a large number of fast trains so
that commuters can go to and fro? If he cannot comment on that
Slough-related topic, does he agree that it is about time the
Government built the western rail link to Heathrow, having
committed to it more than a decade ago and given that it is the
No. 1 infrastructure priority for the whole Thames Valley
region?
The hon. Member touches on one of the themes of this debate: the
importance of Members of Parliament working very closely with
their railway operator, the Department for Transport and Network
Rail to try to achieve the services that their constituents most
value. I will not comment on the business of commuter traffic
from Slough to Paddington—it is not my specialist area. On his
second point, constituents all over Gloucestershire and Wiltshire
would relish the opportunity provided by opening Great Western
Railway services to Heathrow. I am sure the Minister will want to
touch on that, and I thank the hon. Member for his
intervention.
Of course, there have been constant improvements to the network
in recent times, although there have also been some real
difficulties—as The Sunday Times focused on at Theale over the
weekend—and colleagues will no doubt highlight those successes or
failures. Since he cannot be with us, I highlight for my
neighbour, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for
Cheltenham (), the improved forecourt,
interchange cycle hub and 70 additional car park spaces in his
constituency that he and Great Western Railway have worked
successfully on together. There is also the fourth platform at
Bristol Parkway, the delivery of the MetroWest network, the new
Portway park-and-ride station, and the new Ashley Down station
coming soon. All of those are helpful in the west country. In all
this, the Department has played its part, as have successive
Ministers, including this one, who is a great supporter and
champion of railways, which is important.
Inevitably, I would like to highlight what has been achieved in
Gloucester since 2010. Gloucester railway station is an
extraordinary animal. It has the longest platform in the country,
but it is on a spur off the main line between Birmingham and
Bristol, and therefore there has always been a lot to do. Since
2010, we have managed a significant number of improvements,
including a covered walkway between platforms 2 and 1, the new
waiting rooms, and a new accessible station footbridge with the
lifts and eventually the canopy. That also led to a remodelled
station booking office, and we have introduced additional car
parking on the south side of the station, which was a major
business. It is difficult to transfer an asset from the Ministry
of Justice to the city council—that took about three years, but
we got there eventually.
The new hourly direct services between Gloucester and Paddington
also benefit all my colleagues in Gloucester. The new
pay-as-you-go smartcard has been helpful in a number of ways not
originally anticipated, particularly when the station underpass
has been closed to access. Work is going on as we speak to
deliver further improvements, particularly on the underpass,
which is a sensitive bit of infrastructure that links the
hospital to the city centre and which Great Western has gallantly
taken on. There will also be a big improvement in the electric
vehicle charging stations, the forecourts, bus services and so
on.
I want to highlight for the Minister that although the journey
time to Paddington has been reduced by 15 minutes since
electrification, there is an opportunity to increase the speed of
the services simply by renegotiating how long the trains stop at
Gloucester. That time is currently 10 minutes, to allow the
driver to walk from one end of the train to the other, but even
at a slow amble that journey could not possibly take more than a
minute and a half.
It is also important to recognise some of GWR’s community
contribution and community projects, such as the Getaway project
for independent rail travel. Its biggest contribution to
community, however, comes from station staff, who are coping,
calming and carrying on. When strikes happen, no one shouts at a
train driver, because they are not there. It is Steve, Mike,
Alan, Naomi and all their colleagues who cop it at Gloucester and
all the other stations along the line. They deal with the drunks,
the drugs and even the MP who left his bag on the train. I salute
them all.
This debate has to touch on problems as well. I will highlight
four. The first is the continuing strikes by train drivers, which
damage trust and confidence, and put a lot of strain on other
Great Western Railway employees. The second is the extraordinary
feature that train drivers do not have to work on a Sunday. I
cannot think of any other transport system—I was an airline
manager once—where the driver or pilot would be allowed to decide
whether they rock up on a Sunday. That ruins many weekends for
families.
The third problem is the business of Network Rail’s
infrastructure, particularly the failures in the Thames valley.
It is easy to criticise Network Rail, but there are some real
problems and anything the Department can do to improve the
infrastructure in the Thames valley will make a huge difference
to all of us. The last problem is the taxpayer subsidy. We must
let managers manage and civil servants hold them to account. That
is the only way in which we will get the railway operators to
innovate and to continue to improve with better rolling stock and
low-carbon operations that support travellers and help families
and growth.
All those things matter. There are opportunities for big projects
ahead. The Filton Bank electrification promoted by the western
gateway to electrify and speed up journeys between Bristol and
Birmingham in particular would be a very good project for the DFT
to support. Just before coming into this Chamber, I heard from my
right hon. and learned Friend the Member for South Swindon (Sir
) that Great Western Railway
has decided to open the line from Swindon to Oxford, which will
have a lot of advantages for many travellers.
I see the opportunities and the improvements at Gloucester
station that have happened and are happening. I will certainly
continue to work closely on all those, because ultimately,
railway stations and railway operations are in danger of being an
orphan. They are not well managed by county councils. It is up to
us here both to hold them to account and to encourage them to
innovate. I hope that I and all my colleagues in Gloucestershire
and elsewhere will continue to work closely with Great Western
Railway to achieve the necessary improvements.
(in the Chair)
I expect to call the Opposition spokesperson at 5.31 pm, the
Minister at 5.36 pm and to wind up at 5.46 pm, and
that the debate will end at 5.48 pm.4.59pm
(Maidenhead) (Con)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester () on securing this debate. As
it states in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, I am a
member of the GWR stakeholder advisory board. I represent the
Thames Valley on that board.
I want to pick up the point that my hon. Friend made about the
advantages we saw from privatisation of the railways. In my
experience of dealing with companies covering services to my
constituency—to Maidenhead, to Twyford, and the branch lines to
Wargrave, Furze Platt and Cookham—there have been significant
improvements when the companies are private and we have been able
to work with them to improve railway services. The
companies—predominantly GWR, recently—understand the importance
of providing for the needs of customers. That is why I echo my
hon. Friend’s comment that it is important that the Government
examine the current situation, because there is a strange
dichotomy between the cost risk taken by the Department for
Transport and the revenue risk taken by the Treasury. The two
need to be brought together if decent decisions are going to be
made about the services that will be provided to customers.
Sadly, despite my overall experience of working with GWR, I have
to say that in the last month, the experience of my constituents
has not been good. I want to read out the problems that they have
experienced. On 7 and 8 December, there was damage to overhead
electrical wires, with delays and cancellations between London
Paddington and Reading. On 9 December, industrial action resulted
in delays and cancellations. On 10 December, damage to the
overhead electric wires between Slough and London Paddington
caused delays and cancellations. On 11 December, a points failure
in the Slough area resulted in delays and cancellations. On 13
December, defective track between London Paddington and Reading
meant trains having to run at reduced speed on some lines. On 14
December, due to a fault with the signalling system between
Paddington and Heathrow and between Heathrow terminal 5 and
Reading, some lines were blocked. On 15 December, due to a fault
with the signalling system between London Paddington and Reading,
all lines were blocked. The lines were closed on 24, 25, 26 and
27 December because of work at Old Oak Common. On 28 December,
emergency services were dealing with an incident between London
Paddington and Reading, and all lines were blocked.
On 2 January, an object was caught on the overhead electric
wires. On 4 January, travel was disrupted when the police took
control of the line and closed it because of an incident. On 5
January, there were disruptions from flooding. On 7 January,
damage to the overhead electric wires between Paddington and
Reading meant that some lines were blocked. On 8 January, urgent
repairs to the track between Reading and London Paddington meant
trains having to run at reduced speed. On 9 January—today—there
was a speed restriction between Reading and London Paddington.
Frankly, from the point of view of my constituents, this is not
good enough.
What hon. Members and the Minister will have seen from this is
that the vast majority of those incidents were about Network Rail
and its response to problems with overhead wires and on the
track. Just before Christmas, I held a meeting with GWR and
Network Rail. Everybody understands the issues, but the
question—and what I will look for from the Minister—is whether we
can ensure that we will get sufficient support from Network Rail
to resolve these problems such that my constituents can continue
to have the service they expect and deserve.
The hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) mentioned the economic
importance of Slough. Maidenhead is also an economically
important place and is important to GWR in terms of the footfall
from Maidenhead. My constituents need to know that they can rely
on the train service. Sadly, with the way that Network Rail is
behaving at the moment and how it has been dealing with the track
and overhead lines, we are not seeing the service that they
need.
I hope the Minister will be able to give me some confidence and
comfort. We want to get people out of their cars and on to the
railways. Sadly, if they see disruptions and cancellations, they
will go back into their cars. That is not good for the planet—it
is not good for any of us—so, Minister, over to you.
Several hon. Members rose—
(in the Chair)
Members have roughly five minutes. If they stick to that,
everyone should get in.
5.04pm
(Stroud) (Con)
I congratulate my near neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for
Gloucester () on securing this important
debate. I have regular contact with the Rail Minister, who is
absolutely excellent.
I will just run through some of the projects we have locally. We
are trying to reopen the Bristol Road Stonehouse line, which was
closed under the Beeching cuts, to make sure that we have access
into Bristol. This is a 25-year dream of my constituents. I
grasped it, and we managed to get investment from Government to
do a proper feasibility study. I am waiting for the Minister and
Government to give us information about the next stage for the
outline business case. I understood that it was going to come
before Christmas, so it will be helpful for my constituents to
hear a little more about that. Stonehouse Town Council is working
particularly hard on that.
On step-free access at Stroud railway station, there is a lasting
image—a picture is better than a thousand words—of me dragging up
a toddler, a buggy and trying to balance a baby and all sorts of
different things. I have huge sympathy with people who tell me
that they are struggling to get around the station, or are
disabled, have luggage or are elderly. We are really hoping to be
in the Access for All pitch. I am just putting that underneath
the Minister’s nose.
On the Cam and Dursley station, I have made a pitch, speaking to
GWR and others about the reality. It is a really popular station,
and we have a lot of homes being built around the area. We think
there needs to be improved shelters for rain and all weathers,
and I know that some constituents would like to see the frequency
of services increased as we go along.
I do want to echo colleagues’ comments about GWR. They may
disagree, because I know I am a total pest about the railway on
behalf of my constituents, but I feel I have a good relationship
with the organisation, and indeed Network Rail. I have had cause
to contact them many times, sometimes just for run-of-the-mill,
day-to-day things, but also sometimes on sad occasions, when
there have been deaths on the lines. We have had good responses,
and they are responsive, so I am pleased about that.
I do want to mention costs. Constituents of Stroud are talking to
me about the difference between the cost of travelling from
Stroud to London and other lines. At the moment, a single peak
one-way fare is £95. That is absolutely prohibitive for people
who want to travel to work. I know many more people are working
at home, but there should be more choice. For off-peak it goes
down to £46, then down to £33 at 10.30 am. A ticket on the
Worcester to London line, which is a longer journey, at 7 am—when
I had my £95 ticket for—costs £50. I understand that there are
historic boundaries drawn up for Network Rail, and I have written
to the Minister, who has kindly written back and talked to me
about writing to the Rail Delivery Group, but I do think these
historic boundaries and the unfairness that is built in for my
constituents do need to be looked at.
One gentleman wrote to me:
“I’m really concerned by crippling rail costs; it’s proving more
and more difficult for me as a freelancer to be able to commute
into London because the costs are just astronomical. If areas
such as ours aren’t going to be cut off from the rest of the
country, a cheaper rail network is vital. FGW could operate
within the rail network allowing people like me to take advantage
of a rail network card that would greatly improve the costs for
rail fares within the south of England. Currently, this is only
reserved as far as Reading”.
It does not stretch to us, so I urge the Minister to have a look
at that, and I urge all of the companies to do so, too. If it is
prohibitive to get on the trains, we will lose it as a service
and it will become the preserve of the rich. That absolutely
should not be the case.
5.08pm
(Truro and Falmouth)
(Con)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester () on bringing forward this
debate. I represent Truro and Falmouth, which is in the heart of
Cornwall, so I have the opportunity to experience the rail
network myself on a weekly basis, as I often go all the way from
Paddington back to my constituency. My constituents and I all
have tales of unreliability on GWR’s longer-haul services. My
inbox has received several complaints from those who have to
commute out of Cornwall for work and from plenty of students who
go to and from Penryn back to their families each term. Any
additional support we can give to these rail lines would be
appreciated.
However, it is important to acknowledge the improvements that
have been made to our railways since 2019. I always try to make
this point to remind our really talented students at the
University of Exeter and Falmouth University that their journeys
today are actually an awful lot better than they were about five,
10 or 15 years ago. It just would not have been practical for
many of them to come and enjoy being a student in my constituency
at all.
Since May 2019, we have had a half-hourly service between
Plymouth and Penzance, which has greatly boosted passenger
numbers and had a positive impact on the Cornish economy. GWR has
also worked to improve reliability with its new rolling stock of
inter-city express trains. There is also the Night Riviera
Sleeper service, which I have used many times. The sleeper lounge
at Truro station in my constituency has encouraged more people to
travel to London by train rather than plane. We have seen an
exponential rise in passengers since covid. Many people have now
moved to Cornwall and can commute to London for a couple of days
a week using the Riviera service. I believe it is out of service
for refurbishment at the moment, but it is very popular.
I know that my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member
for St Austell and Newquay (), will come on to this in
greater detail, but I am proud that the Government are working
with Cornwall Council, and its delivery partners GWR and Network
Rail, to build the Mid Cornwall Metro. It will do exactly what it
says on the tin: ensure that people can commute from Newquay via
Par and Truro down to Falmouth, so that students do not have to
live close to the university; we can all spread out and enjoy
both coasts. We will see £50 million of levelling-up funding
injected directly into Cornwall’s rail links. Hopefully, we can
expect to see that up and running in 2025-26.
Our communities in Truro and Falmouth are incredibly mixed, with
a large number of car owners. It is incumbent on the railways to
recognise that we are dualling the A30 all the way through my
constituency. That means that at the moment, with the service
unreliability that my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead
(Mrs May) has just set out, more people will choose to use their
cars, which is not the direction of travel that we want. The
dualling project will be completed early spring, and we want to
ensure that the railways remain competitive. Getting the Mid
Cornwall Metro over the line will transform connectivity for the
groups—students, tourists and communities alike—who are most
reliant on public transport, and hopefully alleviate pressure on
parking in our town centres, particularly during the summer
months.
I will not go on for too long, but changing our infrastructure
for the better and levelling up our communities in the south-west
is always going to take time. However, if we do not do it, as my
hon. Friend the Member for Stroud () said, we will get cut
off. The sheer amount of investment from the Government, Cornwall
Council and Network Rail into the railway lines in the south-west
has given us a real leg-up in the last few years. It is our job
now to continue to work with those partners to keep the current
projects on track, and to promote other value-for-money schemes
that can help our towns and villages get that little bit closer.
We are very precarious, and if we do not keep investing, it is
easy for Cornwall to fall off the map.
5.12pm
(Bath) (LD)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. I
congratulate the hon. Member for Gloucester () on bringing the debate to
this Chamber. I will concentrate on green transport because I am
the climate change spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.
Talking about transport and climate change together is what I
always do. To meet our net zero targets, we must make it easier
to travel by train. Rail should be a lifeline for our communities
that connects every part of the country through green public
transport.
Before I discuss issues with our rail lines, I will mention that
in November, I joined members of the Bath community and
representatives from the armed forces and emergency services at
Bath Spa station to hand over poppy wreaths, which were
transported by train to the war memorial at Paddington station.
The “poppy trains” began during covid lockdowns when local
memorial ceremonies were not always possible. The initiative has
been so well supported that GWR has now made it an annual
tradition. It allows those who cannot make a long journey to
London to be part of the commemoration, and it shows the benefits
that the railway can bring to communities well beyond our regular
services. I commend GWR for that wonderful event, and I echo that
it is important for all of us as MPs to work well and have good
working relationships with GWR. I am looking forward to doing so
in the future.
However, public confidence in the railways and our net zero
targets are linked. Transport is the larger emitting sector in
the UK. Rail produces over 70% fewer carbon dioxide omissions
than the equivalent road journeys, yet the current state of our
railways is having the opposite effect because people have been
dissatisfied with the service for a very long time.
I regularly use the train from Bath to London on Sundays, and
there is not a single journey where there is not an issue. It
affects anybody who uses the railway to get to work. The number
of delay repay claims for GWR train journeys more than doubled
between November 2022 and November 2023, and passenger rail
performance is on the decline. Over 40% of trains were not on
time between January and June last year. I hear constantly from
rightfully angry constituents whose trains are late or cancelled,
and the constant disruption impacts on people’s daily lives. Why
should people feel confident about using the railway if every
journey is a gamble? As we have already heard today, if people
cannot rely on the railway, they will go and use other forms of
transport, particularly their cars.
This debate comes as the Government oversees the largest increase
in rail fares for a generation. The UK already has some of the
highest rail fares in Europe, and fares are still set to rise by
nearly 5% in March. The public are paying more for less on our
rail network, and commuters are particularly affected. The short
journey between Bath and Bristol was previously the most
expensive rail journey per mile in the world, and Ministers
cannot continue to turn a blind eye to these issues. I recognise
that a lot of what we are talking about this afternoon is not
just GWR’s problem, but a Government problem, and we have the
Minister here to answer some of our concerns.
Ticketing is also complicated. Last year, GWR charged £46 for a
peak return from Bath to London on 17 November. For the same
journey on 30 November, the cost shot up to £94—more than double.
We need a fares and ticketing system that makes taking the train
simpler and more affordable, and I hope that we can get some
answers from the Minister this afternoon. We in Bath are lucky to
welcome so many foreign visitors, but it can be particularly
confusing for tourists to use unfamiliar apps or ticket machines,
and it needs to be a lot easier for them.
We also need to make our trains greener, and electrifying our
railways is an essential step. I know that this is not GWR’s
problem; it is basically about having a commitment from the
Government, and I would like to hear more on that. However, the
overall pace of electrification is lagging. Bath has a big air
pollution problem. The electrification of the line through Bath
has been on hold for years, and dirty diesel trains are still
going through the city. Air pollution kills. Not getting on with
electrification is a complete dereliction of duty not just to our
net zero plans, but to public health.
The Treasury blocked a £30 billion plan to electrify Britain’s
railways over the next 30 years. I have an ally in GWR who wants
to see that happen. The Government said that Great
British Railways would produce a 30-year plan to electrify
the railways. However, that organisation is not expected to be
fully up and running until later in the year at the earliest. I
would like to know about the plans to finally
establish Great British Railways
which has had cross-party support. Why the delay?
Strong public transport will take us to net zero and connect our
country. Passengers deserve to feel confident in their railways,
and people need access to clean, green and affordable trains.
Only then will we build the sustainable, modern and affordable
railway that we are all looking forward to.
5.18pm
(St Austell and Newquay)
(Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester () on securing the debate.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of the Great Western
main line to Cornwall. It is one of our absolutely critical
transport links to the rest of the country, and I regularly
travel to and fro London on it. Overall, the service is very
good, although I agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for
Maidenhead (Mrs May) about some of the problems over the last
month or so. Many constituents have been in touch with me about
that, and I have experienced the unreliability myself. However,
we have seen significant investment in the railway in Cornwall in
recent years, particularly the upgrade to a modern signalling
system, which has enabled us to increase capacity on the train
line. That has resulted in the new half-hourly trains between
Plymouth and Penzance, which have been really welcomed and
greatly used. Passenger numbers have grown as a result.
GWR also operates the Night Riviera Sleeper that, again, is
really important to the Cornish economy, enabling people to
travel overnight for work and for business. I know there have
been questions over its future recently, and I put on the record
just how important that service is to Cornwall; we really must do
everything we can to maintain it.
We have seen some great investment, but there is still more to
do. The one thing constituents often raise with me is that they
would like to see better and more reliable mobile and wi-fi
signals on the train to enable them to work. If we could do more
to improve the reliability of the wi-fi signal particularly, that
would be very welcome.
In the time I have left, I want to refer to the significant and
exciting Mid Cornwall Metro project, which I have been working on
since 2018. It will connect the middle part of Cornwall: from
Newquay, through Par, St Austell, Truro and down into Falmouth.
It will use the capacity on the existing main line, but will also
utilise the two branch lines between Newquay and Falmouth to
connect four of the biggest towns in Cornwall. Around a third of
the Cornish population will be connected, offering direct trains
from Newquay right through to Falmouth. About 50% of the economic
activity of Cornwall will be able to utilise this line.
It is a really exciting opportunity that will see investment into
Newquay itself: a second platform will be built that will open up
more investment to improve that part of the town, and that will
be really welcome. One of the things most exciting to me is the
linking up of many of the smaller villages through what we in Mid
Cornwall call the clay country—the china clay villages—with the
four biggest towns in Mid Cornwall, and the opportunities that
will bring for education, training and work, particularly to
young people who do not have a car. I can imagine a young person
living in the village of Roche being able to get to Falmouth to
go to university, or an apprenticeship at the docks there, or
being able to get to Truro for a job. This will open up such
opportunity for young people, and that is what excites me about
this project.
I know we are close to being able to announce the final funding
agreement, and I ask the Minister to do all he can to make sure
that the announcement comes forward as quickly as possible,
because I know that GWR and Network Rail are desperate to start
work. They want to start work next month so that we can deliver
this project by 2025. I ask him to do all he can just to get that
final push, so we are able to make that announcement. I know he
came down to Cornwall last year, but perhaps he would like to
come to see work begin on this new project. I genuinely believe
it is a really exciting opportunity to improve the rail
connectivity through Cornwall, and all the benefits that will
bring.
Finally, I want to place on record my thanks to the Minister, the
Department for Transport, Network Rail, GWR and Cornwall
Council—we have all worked incredibly well together. It has been
difficult at times, but the amount of work and collaboration that
has gone on to get us to this point has been a real example of
working together for the good of Cornwall. Thank you to everyone
who has been involved, and I look forward to that positive
announcement as soon as possible.
5.23pm
(The Cotswolds)
(Con)
Thank you for allowing me to contribute to this debate, Ms Vaz. I
am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (), a constituency neighbour,
for securing this debate. I am glad to see that Gloucestershire
is extremely well represented in this debate—the premier county
well represented.
The Great Western main line serves two directions in my
constituency: it serves the north Cotswold line from Oxford to
Hereford via Moreton-in-Marsh, and it also serves the south
Cotswold line from Kemble, through my constituency and through my
neighbour’s constituency, that of my hon. Friend the Member for
Stroud (), eventually to Swindon
with some direct trains to Paddington. Rail travel did drop over
covid, but it is coming back quite nicely now. I therefore
welcome the Government’s investment of £5 billion into the Great
Western route, including £2.8 billion to continue improvements on
routes, as passengers return to travelling by train in their
millions.
The service provided by train lines and train stations is
important. I welcomed the news that the Government have scrapped
their proposals to close all ticket offices; I received a
considerable number of objections from constituents to this
proposal. More and more people these days do use websites and
apps to plan and book their journeys, but having someone who is
able to help on the platforms and at ticket office can often make
a huge difference to a journey, especially for elderly
constituents and those with additional needs.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester alluded to, we are
trying to encourage more people to use trains where they can.
Many have no choice: only one in four of our under-21s and fewer
than two thirds of our under-30s have a driving licence. For
those reliant on the Great Western line for work, school,
hospital and appointments, the reliability of the service is
essential. Since the end of the pandemic, regrettably, train
cancellations have been at the highest level since records began
12 years ago. More than 30% of trains were cancelled late last
year.
The performance and reliability data from National Rail, the
independent website that automatically processes data from the
rail network and the Association of Train Operating Companies,
shows the following: 90% of trains were on time in 2017, compared
with 78.8% last month; 8% were late in 2017, compared with 11.3%
last month; and—the worst statistic—just 2% were very late or
cancelled in 2017, compared with 9.9% last month. That shows a
significant deterioration.
I have to tell the Rail Minister that up until recently I always
regarded GWR’s service as being among the best, but in the last
month or so it seems to have deteriorated significantly. If one
relies on the railway to get to an appointment, it is really
quite a difficult thing for it to be late or cancelled. Problems
on the Great Western line have included extremely delayed or
cancelled trains due to flooding, signalling issues, trains
waiting at Reading station, which have caused issues further up
the line, and a broken rail crossing. We have heard all that in
the debate. That should have been avoided by a proper preventive
maintenance programme. They surely ought to be fairly easy issues
to fix. A particularly easy issue to fix is that Kemble station
has a Rolls-Royce of a waiting room and Rolls-Royce facilities,
but they are permanently closed. That causes annoyance to my
constituents.
The rail line dualling that I initiated some years ago on both
Kemble to Swindon and at Moreton-in-Marsh cut journey times
significantly. If we could resurrect proposals to dual more of
the railway from Oxford to Hereford, we could cut the journey
time considerably.
Finally, I praise the staff, as my hon. Friend the Member for
Gloucester did. In particular, the staff at Kemble are
delightful. One of Kemble’s delightful services is the wonderful
coffee and buns that can be purchased there. I congratulate the
lady there, who is incredibly nice, always reliable and always
there. That makes rail travel a great deal more pleasant.
Thank you, Ms Vaz, for allowing me to participate in the debate.
I hope that the Rail Minister will be able to give GWR a bit of a
poke, so that we can get the poor service of the last month
greatly improved.5.27pm
(Portsmouth South) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. I thank
the hon. Member for Gloucester () for opening this important
debate. As he said, the Great Western main line, engineered by
Brunel nearly 200 years ago, continues to play a vital role in
linking towns and communities, spurring economic growth and
connecting our country.
This has been a good-spirited debate, with speeches and
interventions of note on both sides of the House. My hon. Friend
the Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) never misses an opportunity to
speak up for his constituents and rail passengers, and I thank
him for his tireless work in trying to improve connectivity
between the south-west and Heathrow airport. A number of hon. and
right hon. Members have raised a number of issues with regard to
the cancellation of services and the delays affecting their
constituents, and I thank them for that. It is clear that a key
theme of the debate is giving passengers confidence in the
reliability of services.
Of course, this is a very timely debate, given the disruption
that we have seen on the line of late. It was caused most
recently by a broken rail crossing and damaged overhead electric
cables between Reading and Paddington. Perhaps more worryingly,
there were four incidents of damaged rail found on the Great
Western line within just eight days in November. There has been a
flurry of incidents that raise concerns about whether enough is
being done to ensure that our rail infrastructure is fit not only
for the future but for the present.
To add to those concerns, last summer a Network Rail presentation
leaked to The Independent revealed that current funding would not
let Network Rail operate, maintain and renew its tracks, bridges
and earthworks infrastructure. That leaked presentation said that
there will be fewer repairs over the next five years and that
there could be more obstructions that cause delays and accidents
due to an inability to clear them. At a time of record
cancellations and delays, as well as rising fares, that is the
last thing that passengers deserve to hear.
Across the country in the 12 months up to September 2023, just
two in three trains were arriving at their station stops on time.
Those poor performance figures are no different from those of the
Great Western main line: just 61.7% stops at Great Western
railway stations arrived on time. I believe that that lack of
reliability is driving people away from the railways at a time
when we should be encouraging their use.
(Maidenhead) (Con)
Will the hon. Member give way?
I am conscious of time, so I will carry on.
A couple of months ago, I sat in on a focus group made up of
young men living near Exeter who were being asked about their use
of public transport. It was disappointing but sadly not
surprising to hear that they rarely use rail services, as they
view them as being too unreliable and too expensive. They said
that they were surprised when their train arrived on time, and
that longer journeys were impossible to plan because they could
not account for the expected length of delays.
As we look to the future, it is vital that the Great Western main
line continues to evolve and improve. Key to that is making it
fit for the net zero Britain of the future, but sadly successive
Conservative Governments since 2010 have failed to deliver on
that. According to the Government’s own figures, the 2013 cost
estimate for the electrification of the 221 miles of the Great
Western main line between Heathrow Junction station and Cardiff
was £1.7 billion. The work, which was due to be completed in
2017, was part-finished in 2020 at a cost of £2.8 billion—a
whopping £1.1 billion over budget—at a much reduced scope, with
the removal of the 45 miles between Cardiff and Swansea, the 30
miles between Chippenham and Bristol Temple Meads via Bath, and
the five miles between Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple
Meads.
(Carmarthen East and
Dinefwr) (Ind)
Will the hon. Member give way?
I will carry on, because I am conscious of time.
As we know, coming in over budget and over time, and only partly
delivered, has become the norm for rail infrastructure projects
under this Government.
We need to ask why Britain has fallen so far behind other
European countries when it comes to getting things built. The
Government seem to be of the view that the country that created
the railways can no longer build them; that other countries can
do it, but not us. Labour wholeheartedly rejects that view. We
are working with local leaders, mayors, businesses and unions.
Labour in government will deliver a credible and transformative
programme of rail transport infrastructure by replacing the
current Victorian-era infrastructure, and building connectivity
and capacity to improve performance, which will reduce congestion
and put our railways back on track.
It is clear that there are many issues affecting the Great
Western main line. I believe they are emblematic of the issues
that are affecting our wider rail network. Therefore, I hope that
the Minister will outline what steps he is taking to tackle the
chronic delays and cancellations on the line—we have heard about
that from many Members this evening—and to confirm whether he
agrees with the Network Rail presentation that said that, over
the last five years, there were fewer repairs, which led to even
more delays for passengers. I look forward to hearing the
Minister’s remarks and I would like, once again, to thank the
hon. Member for Gloucester for securing this important
debate.
5.33pm
The Minister of State, Department for Transport ()
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester () for securing this important
debate on the future of the Great Western main line and for his
engaging and positive speech this afternoon. I also thank all
right hon. and hon. Members for their contributions; if I do not
touch on the matters that they asked me about, I will be sure to
write to each and every one of them to ensure that they get a
full response.
I also applaud my hon. Friend’s positive work campaigning to
improve transport infrastructure for his constituents in
Gloucester. Like him, this Government are committed to supporting
investment in rail. The commitment to the vital role of the
railway in connecting communities and supporting the economy is
something that we share.
The last decade has seen major transformation across the Wales
and western region, culminating in May 2023 in the full roll-out
of the Elizabeth line services, a once-in-a-generation investment
that now carries one in six rail passengers. However, there is
now significant pressure on the Thames valley network and indeed
the entire Great Western Railway network, where there are
competing demands from commuter traffic, airport passengers,
long-distance leisure passengers and freight users.
Performance on the Great Western main line has not been good
enough in recent times. Too often, passengers are unable to
complete their journey as planned. Hundreds of passengers were
caught up in disruption at London Paddington when the overhead
lines failed in early December, as many hon. Members mentioned,
which forced many members of the public to stay in hotels or make
complex alternative travel arrangements.
Last Thursday, flooding and a tragic incident in Pangbourne meant
that passengers from London and Reading could not travel further
west, once again leaving passengers no option but to stay
overnight in Reading. Since then, the railway has seen further
disruptions, including an electric line failure on the overheads
on Sunday and two track defects yesterday and today, which were
mentioned in the debate. Last year, the closure of Nuneham
viaduct caused major disruption to passengers in Oxford and the
Cotswolds for a prolonged period. This is not good enough. My
right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) asked
whether there will be Government support. That will be the case,
and that will also be the case with regard to Network Rail.
Between October 2022 and 2023, 67% of delays were attributed to
the asset and therefore to Network Rail matters. I am committed
to improving performance in the western region. I recently met
Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail—we meet
regularly—to allow us both to reflect on some of the challenges.
He is very straight and open about those challenges—we both
are—and I have every confidence in Andrew and his team in their
delivery of the required improvements. I am also meeting my right
hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead and other members of the
Great Western Railway stakeholder advisory board tomorrow.
Turning to performance, on 29 November, the Office of Rail and
Road launched an investigation into poor train punctuality and
reliability in the Network Rail Wales and western region, with
particular focus on the Thames valley area, which affects all GWR
services between London and Reading. Network Rail has committed
to work with the Office of Rail and Road to identify causes and
take steps to address them. The ORR’s investigation will assess
whether Network Rail is complying with its licence obligations in
the Wales and western region. There have been several operational
and personnel changes on the Network Rail western route in the
last year, and I am confident that the new appointments will
start to bear fruit. I thought it important to set that out. It
demonstrates that we recognise the challenge and that we are
going to do something about it.
The Government are investing and re-investing in the network. On
my summer rail tour, I visited the south-west of England, and
many of the right hon. and hon. Members present today. I had the
opportunity to see at first hand the great work delivered as part
of the south-west rail resilience programme to complete the £82
million sea wall that protects the coastal Dawlish rail route,
which has brought the total investment on that project to £165
million. We have also reallocated funding from HS2 to ensure that
the final phases of the programme can be delivered. I also spent
time with the managing director of Great Western Railways, his
staff and his inspiring apprentices from Oxford, as they joined
me on that journey to Devon and Cornwall and all the way back
again. As part of the MetroWest programme, the number of services
between Bristol and Gloucester doubled to half hourly in May
2023. I thank the West of England Combined Authority, which has
worked in partnership with Great Western Railway to make this
possible.
Turning to matters in Gloucester, I know that my hon. Friend the
Member for Gloucester was fundamental to initiating the
multimillion pound redevelopment of Gloucester station. In
addition to the Gloucester local enterprise partnership funding,
this Government and GWR provided an additional £1.7 million to
take the project forward, and we are committed to working with my
hon. Friend to see what can be done to complete the
redevelopment. He will be reassured to know that our right hon.
Friend the Secretary of State for Transport is also a
Gloucestershire representative and therefore has an interest. My
hon. Friend made a point about dwell time improvements at
Gloucester station. I will investigate and get back to him on
that.
In 2023, three new stations were opened on the GWR network, all
supported by Government funding. Passengers in Reading, Exeter
and Bristol have benefited from the new Reading Green Park, Marsh
Barton, and Portway stations. In May 2023, GWR introduced 65 new
services each week between London Paddington and Carmarthen,
thereby strengthening connectivity between England and Wales.
The Minister will know that in my part of the world, in west
Wales, the bone of contention is that electrification stops in
Cardiff. With the scrapping of HS2’s northern leg, does that free
up capital money to electrify to Swansea, and even beyond to
Carmarthen and further west?
The projects have been listed in the Network North programme from
the Prime Minister, but there is additional funding going to
regions, which can then decide how they wish to spend monies.
That actually applies to the Filton project mentioned by my hon.
Friend the Member for Gloucester.
Let me turn to Cornwall, because it was put to me: will Cornwall
fall off the map? Never will Cornwall fall off the GWR map or the
map of this Government. The Government allocated £50 million of
levelling-up funding for delivery of the Mid Cornwall Metro
project, which my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth
() has worked hard on. The
joint venture between Cornwall council, GWR and Network Rail will
boost connectivity and the economy in all parts of Cornwall. I
pay particular tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for St
Austell and Newquay (), who has tirelessly promoted
this project. Whether calling me on my phone or chasing me around
Parliament, he never ceases to push this matter, and I am
grateful to him for bringing everybody together. I will of course
come down and visit him and I hope we will have something
positive to announce. I can tell him that the Cornish riviera is
also a priority for me.
I also agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester about
the need for a truly seven-day railway, and the damage that
strikes on the railway cause. Leisure travel at weekends is a
huge growth area, and it is disappointing that ASLEF refuses to
engage on this issue of having a seven-day railway. Indeed, with
Sunday falling on 24 December and 31 December, I found a
submission at the beginning of December requiring more money for
the workforce if they were going to work Sundays, because Sunday
is not part of the seven-day week. Now, we had to comply with
that because tickets had been sold and British Transport police
were concerned, but we cannot be barrelled over. We need a
seven-day railway, and I am committed to delivering that.
I will visit my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud () in Stonehouse. She and
the town council have done a great job, and when I visit we will
look at the business case, because there has been work inside the
Department.
I will be perhaps a little more realistic with the hon. Member
for Bath (). The UK taxpayer has
invested £31 billion during and since the pandemic. Previously,
money was put in by the train companies from the franchising
process to the tune of a profit of £200 million for the UK
taxpayer. We have to be realistic about the funding of the
railway, and therefore fare increases, when we are asking the
taxpayer to pay such a burden. It should also be noted that only
half the fare increases that one would usually expect from
inflation have been borne by passengers; the rest has fallen on
the UK taxpayer. We have that balance.
To my shadow, the hon. Member for Portsmouth South (), I gently point out that
more than 1,200 miles of railway line has been electrified
between 2010 and 2023. I do call that investment in the railway,
when I consider that during the 13 years when Labour were in
government, it was just over 60 miles.
To wrap up, I hope my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester can
see the Government’s ambition to improve journeys for passengers
and freight users on the Great Western main line. I am grateful
for the work that GWR does, and I recognise that the managing
director shows an interest. He is here today, which tells us
everything. I am grateful for the work done by Network Rail and
for the work to come. I will personally be involved in bringing
those matters together to give a better performance to the
railway. Those running this railway, and that includes me,
recognise that performance must improve. We are committed to
ensuring that it does.
5.43pm
This has been a very useful debate. We have heard widespread
enthusiasm for railways; recognition of the new services, such as
those 174 extra Gloucester-Bristol services a week; reassurance
that the Minister shares our views on Sunday services;
recognition of the partnerships, perhaps particularly in
Cornwall, that do happen between Great Western and other parts of
the country; and of course, most importantly, a lot of
frustration about reliability of services. I think we are all
happy to hear the Minister’s comments on performance and his
commitment to improvement. We look forward to seeing that
improvement in performance and reliability delivered during 2024,
so that all our constituents can enjoy the pleasures of
travelling by rail on Great Western Railway.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the future of the Great Western
main line.
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