The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Claire Perry)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr Walker) on securing this important debate on journey times between London and Worcester on the North Cotswold line, and for his superb, highly factual and very eloquent speech. He is part of an honourable and select tribe of Members served by the Great Western franchise area, including the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, the Secretary of State for Wales, my hon. Friend the recently knighted Member for Mid Worcestershire (Sir Peter Luff), and indeed the Minister with responsibility for railways. I pay particular tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin), who in her wonderful role as a Lords Commissioner cannot speak in public on this matter, although she speaks fully in private whenever she can. As we are all conscious of the importance of good rail connections for the businesses and communities that we represent, and the economic vibrancy that is at stake, this debate is of keen interest to many.
My hon. Friend the Member for Worcester has set out with great clarity the importance of the Great Western rail network to his constituency. Let me address his concerns head on. First Great Western, Network Rail and my Department completely recognise the case for a sub two-hour service between London and the points that he makes in relation to his constituency. Work is ongoing to look at additional track redoubling on these routes that, along with the planned introduction of new rolling stock, could deliver the additional speeds that he and many other hon. Members seek on behalf of their constituents. We need to assess possible route options and the money required to deliver this and balance that against competing priorities on the route. I am fully aware of the strong local feelings and the strong local case being made about the importance of this work, and I will be seeking to complete this work as soon as possible.
My hon. Friend will be aware that there have already been substantial improvements on the lines in that franchise area. In 2011, the long-awaited partial redoubling of the North Cotswold line was completed. The Great Western main line between London, Oxford, Newbury, Bristol and Swansea, together with the Thames valley branches, will be electrified by 2019, delivering faster and more reliable services. Those routes will be equipped with brand-new intercity express trains—I was pleased to visit the mock-up in Warwick only this week—and with other electric trains for the local and regional services. Combined diesel and electric bimodal intercity express trains will be introduced to serve routes such as the North Cotswold line, allowing electric operation as far as Oxford from London Paddington.
As my hon. Friend mentioned, a new Worcestershire Parkway station will be built. I could not have made the case better than he did for providing funding for that station. He explained the compelling economic benefits and what it will mean for commuters. He will be pleased to know that new car parking capacity has already been provided at Charlbury and Hanborough stations and will be provided at Kingham—that commitment has been made.
Further down the line, the £895 million project to deliver an entirely new station at Reading, including a substantial untangling of the lines there, which we all rely on, will deliver faster journey times to London for all our commuting passengers. I am pleased to say that that work is almost complete.
That is all part of the record £38 billion that will be invested in Britain’s railways over the next five years—the biggest programme of investment since Victorian times and, in our region’s case, the biggest set of changes since Brunel. It is a huge transformation of Britain’s railways.
However, as well as capacity we have to talk about passengers. We have seen a doubling of passenger numbers across the railway network since privatisation, and sadly investment has not kept up. Indeed, can hon. Members guess how many miles of track were electrified under the previous Government? The answer is nine. We will deliver 850 miles of electrified track by 2019, because this Government believe that we cannot grow without transport infrastructure. It is not surprising that the Opposition Benches are completely empty, given their pitiful record on investing in the nation’s infrastructure.
The growth in passenger numbers explains in part why journey times have slowed, as my hon. Friend pointed out. The networks are more crowded and we are running more trains, and that means things have to go a little slower, as counter-intuitive as that seems, unless we invest. It is no wonder that some of the top 10 most crowded lines in the country, which I am currently “mystery riding”, are on the North Cotswold line.
To try to alleviate some of that pressure in the short term, we are working hard with franchise operators to boost capacity. As my hon. Friend knows, my Department is funding the conversion of one and a half first-class carriages per First Great Western train to standard class, creating 3,000 more standard-class seats a day across the network—nearly 16% more standard-class seats on services into London. I have sat in the 2,000th seat to be delivered under that programme, and the full roll-out will happen by September 2015. First Great Western is also fitting free wi-fi to its high-speed trains by the end of this year, complementing the free wi-fi already fitted to the class 180 trains used on the North Cotswold line and the Cornish Riviera sleeper trains.
We are getting there, but there are concerns, which my hon. Friend eloquently raised. All that investment creates disruption on the line, and one of the reasons I announced an anticipated new direct award to First Great Western for the next three and a half years was to ensure the stability of operators in charge of our passenger journeys through a difficult and complicated time of engineering works on our lines. However, we all need to do better to minimise avoidable disruption.
Many hon. Members have expressed concern about problems with the punctuality of train services in that area, particularly given the problems we had between London and Reading last week, which were caused by issues with Network Rail works. It is not good enough. In a recent meeting with senior directors of Network Rail, I took the opportunity to give strong emphasis to that message, as I will continue to do on behalf of those we represent who use these vital networks.
I want to touch on two further matters. First, I acknowledge the huge amount of great work done by the Cotswold Line Promotion Group. The group was formed in 1987 to protect and promote this vital route at a time when these services were arguably at their most vulnerable following an incomprehensible programme of track part-singling by British Rail; there was even doubt about the continued operation of through services to London. It is impossible to imagine the rationale behind those decisions today, when all those in this Government and in this party, and across British businesses, see the vital role that our railways play in local and national economic growth. Thank goodness for the campaigning work of this group, whose vice-presidents include my hon. Friends the Members for Worcester and for Mid Worcestershire, and several other hon. Members. It is a tribute to the achievements of the group in pursuit of this aim that this debate on journey times between London and Worcester on the North Cotswold line is possible at all. Things are very different from how they were in 1978, not least because the lights are being kept on in Britain.
Secondly, I should like to focus on the train services currently operating on the route. Hon. Members and other stakeholders have made it very clear to First Great Western their concerns about the relatively slow overall journey times on the route and about gaps in the timetable. In response, FGW carried out a review of the timetable with the aim of identifying how far it might be able to address these issues before all the new investment starts to come on stream. I commend the company for its initiative in doing so. Key improvements will be introduced by next May, including a big acceleration of a very important commuting service—the 05:28 service from Hereford, which will now reach London at 08:30, a much better time to start one’s working day. Remaining gaps in the timetable are being filled. For example, there are new journey opportunities from Worcester to London at 11:23 and 15:20, and other journey time improvements across the network. Concerns about the loss of some off-peak station calls have also been partially alleviated.
While I know that satisfaction about these changes is not universal, I think that a sensible balance has been struck. Moreover, a further review of the timetable will become possible with the arrival of the bimodal intercity express trains following electrification to Oxford.
Sir Peter Luff
I thank the Minister for the encouraging tone of her remarks in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr Walker). Could the passenger journey time improvement fund be used for minor infrastructure works to further enhance journey times now, ahead of the major changes?
Claire Perry
My hon. Friend is right to raise that. Indeed, I jotted a note to my team while I was listening to my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester to ask what is happening with the journey time improvement fund. If I may, I will revert back to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire with more information. This is clearly another opportunity to make some improvements.
On the basis of the new timetable that has been presented, I have given my agreement to the interim changes that First Great Western has sought. I will ensure that the valid points that my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester has made regarding other improvements are reflected on at the highest possible levels of First Great Western.
This is a really exciting time for the railways. I am very proud of the fact that my Government’s ambition for this investment in these vital services is unprecedented. I think that all of us in this House are passionate about our railways. The great news is that improvements are being delivered now—it is not a case of jam tomorrow—and there are more to come. My hon. Friend and his colleagues have made their ambitions for their constituents regarding improved journey times and better connectivity abundantly clear, and I look forward to working with him and others in future to develop those ambitions still further.
I thank all my hon. Friends for their passionate advocacy of the better train links for their constituents that are so important to the economies in their areas. I particularly thank my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester, who has made such a powerful case today. I wish him well on his visit to China to drum up business for Worcestershire, and hope that at least some of my words will help him to hold his head up high. I hold my head up high every day because I am so proud to be part of a Government delivering record levels of investment in the railways so that this great country can grow. Without this investment, we cannot grow and we cannot keep Britain moving.
Question put and agreed to.