Asked by Lord Berkeley To ask Her Majesty’s Government
whether they intend to bring forward proposals to create extra
capacity on the railways, as outlined in their 2017 manifesto; and
if so, when. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department
for Transport (Lord Callanan) My Lords, we set out in July
requirements for the railway...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to
bring forward proposals to create extra capacity on the
railways, as outlined in their 2017 manifesto; and if so,
when.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport (Lord Callanan)
My Lords, we set out in July requirements for the railway
from 2019 to 2024, and we announced today the statement of
funds available for it, continuing our record investment in
the railways. I am delighted to say that Network Rail will
be investing £47.9 billion in our railways over that
period. By the end of this year, we intend to publish a
rail upgrade plan, which will set out the start of the
process of specific rail enhancements that we are investing
in. We are fully committed to HS2, northern powerhouse rail
and passenger rail franchises, all of which will contribute
to this Government’s continuing development and investment
in new capacity across the entire network.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I declare an interest as chairman of the Rail
Freight Group. I welcome what the Minister has said today
and the Secretary of State’s Statement, which refers to
continuing investment in the rail freight network. However,
the statement of funds available is an eight-page document,
four of those pages being blank. When does the Minister
intend to put a few a figures in it? I hope that the
Government in doing that will provide a holistic solution
and commitment to things like the northern powerhouse. We
have heard in the past few months about the cancellation of
certain electrification projects and then about £5 million
to be spent on the digitalisation of one line in the
northern powerhouse. The Government are acting as a kind of
pop-up café for the railway. I hope that we will have a
long-term commitment to an industry that needs long-term
funding.
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My Lords, I totally agree—I have given the noble Lord the
figures for our long-term commitment for the control period
from 2019 to 2024. He mentioned northern powerhouse rail.
Let me tell him exactly what we are doing. We are spending
£13 billion on northern transport in this Parliament, the
largest sum in government history, and providing better
rail journeys through the Northern and TransPennine franchises and the
northern rail project. The train operators, Northern
and TransPennine Express, will deliver
brand new trains, including more than 500 new carriages,
room for 40,000 extra passengers and more than 2,000 extra
services a week. By 2020 all the trains will be brand new
or completely refurbished and all Pacer trains will be
gone. We are committed to northern powerhouse rail and are
getting on with delivering it.
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(Con)
My Lords, nothing better illustrates the gap between the
Government and the understanding of the people than the
infamous infrastructural albatross that is HS2. It is going
to cost between £57 billion and £100 billion and has been
criticised by all who understand it. Very few benefits are
going to accrue. With all the other problems in the country
at the moment, why not scrap this ridiculous vanity
project—for that is what it is—and spend the money on all
the rest of the railway infrastructure that needs it?
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I have had the pleasure of discussing this subject with the
noble Lord before—
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Noble Lords
Oh!
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That was not meant as a joke. I know that the noble Lord
has strong feelings on the subject, but he will know that I
simply do not agree with him. We are spending £55 billion
on HS2, not the sums he mentioned. It is a vital project to
increase capacity, reduce journey times, unlock
regeneration and create thousands of jobs. It is not
stopping us progressing with additional projects. I
mentioned the sums we are spending on additional rail
enhancements; I should have said that that is in addition
to the money we are spending on HS2. HS2 is a vital project
for this country and we are committed to proceeding with
it. So far, it is on time and on budget.
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(CB)
My Lords, while the noble Lord is right to draw attention
to the very welcome announcement of the improvement of rail
services between cities such as Liverpool and Manchester,
will he also tell the House what might be done to link the
northern Pennine towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire,
particularly the reopening of proper express services, a
Hellifield link and many other things that could be done
for towns that have suffered acute poverty and often feel
neglected and completely forgotten?
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The noble Lord makes an important point. He will be aware
that we are working closely with Transport for the North,
which we have given £50 million to develop transport
proposals for the north of England. It is something I
believe passionately in—I use those services myself. We are
committed to the project, we are proceeding with it, we
expect to receive the final proposal from Transport for the
North later this year and we will announce that we are
proceeding then.
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(LD)
My Lords—
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(Lab)
My Lords—
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The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park)
(Con)
My Lords, it is the turn of the Liberal Democrats. If we have
a short question I hope we will be able to hear from the
Labour Benches as well.
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Today’s announcement about railway investment does not extend
to the larger investment schemes, which may account for the
four blank pages referred to by the noble Lord, —schemes such as that at
Reading and the one on Crossrail. There are very long-lasting
benefits from such schemes and that is not reflected properly
in the current appraisal programmes. Will the Minister meet
me and other interested Peers to discuss the appraisal of
schemes where most of the benefits flow outside the public
purse and we are left having spent the money but not reaping
the benefits?
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By their very nature, transport projects are long-term
commitments. That is why we do five-year investment projects.
Transport infrastructure investment projects deliver
long-term benefits to all sectors of the economy. I will be
happy to write to the noble Lord to set out our appraisal of
these schemes.
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My Lords, many travellers in the north of England would
welcome a pop-up café.
The Minister is committed to this area, so my question to him
is: what guarantees can we have that the announcements, which
have been reinforced today, will actually be carried through
given the stop-start nature of all the announcements about
investment in the northern powerhouse?
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We are committed to the northern powerhouse rail project and
the TransPennine project. We are
proceeding with them. We have announced the funding available
two years in advance of the start of the funding period. I
cannot do any more than tell the noble Lord that we are
totally committed to the projects. We need to continue to
review amounts made available in the light of developments in
the economy, but because we have delivered a successful
economy we are able to spend record amounts investing in our
rail infrastructure, our road infrastructure and all aspects
of our transport system.
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