Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 7th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bradshaw (LD)]

My Lords, this Bill was forecast in the Labour Party’s manifesto. We have no quarrel with the need to take drastic action to make the railways work better for passengers, freight business and the taxpayer. State-run organisations can be run efficiently, and we will help to see that they do; we will also help see that, in the case of the railways, passengers and freight users are the main focus of policy.

The Railways Act 1993 left the railway with an expensive and bureaucratic organisation where too much of the effort was focused on blaming others—as instanced by Keith Williams in his original report—for shortcomings in service provision and a regulatory structure which, in common with other privatised industries, was not fit for purpose. We hope it is the Government’s intention to review the role of the road and rail regulator, which has concentrated its efforts on promoting competition and has neglected most of its other statutory duties. The basis for calculating abstracted revenue by open access operators has not been sufficiently challenged, and the regulator’s responsibility for safety has departed without sufficient regard for the widely accepted as low as reasonably practicable principles.

The legal structure devised by the rail regulator gives access rights to operators, protected in law, which prevent the optimisation of the timetable. While it is acceptable that freight has protected status, it should be incorporated in a rational timetabling process optimising scarce infrastructure resources. In my opinion, reform of the regulatory process is essential to the success of GBR. Without control of the regulatory arrangements, it will continue to be the case that major investments—like the £4 billion being spent on the east coast route—will not achieve improvements.

It has become apparent that no one can make timetable decisions that produce faster journey times, as there are so many conflicting paths and no rational ways of resolving these conflicts. As a result, there have been no major revisions to the timetable since 1991. A revised timetable for all routes would give priority to London-bound services, after which would come interregional services and then local services. That would be easily understood and can be built into a co-ordinated whole, giving good connections throughout the railway to other rail and bus services. The control organisation supervising railway operations needs overhauling to eliminate much duplication and end the focus on the blame game, changing it to one that concentrates on failures.

Complaints are made about the rolling stock companies. We do not expect these to be taken into public ownership, although, in common with other state-owned assets, they were sold far too cheaply and largely debt free to an immature market. However, allegations about fixing the market have not been upheld and, with fresh entrants into the business, there is every reason to believe that the market will become more competitive. The rolling stock companies should have a place at the table when designs are developed, as well as the supply side of the industry and some representation from goods designers, as was the case with British Rail.

We await with interest what the Government will propose for fares and charges. We want our railway to be busier. For this to happen, we need to charge cheaper fares and provide more capacity. In many cases our trains are too full, to the extent that people avoid using them, which cannot be right environmentally or economically. We want our railways to offer a “turn up and go” capability, not one that charges high fares to travellers who have to make urgent journeys at the last minute and who face having to stand because insufficient accommodation is available.

There are a few more issues on which we want clarity from the Government, in the Minister’s reply or in subsequent legislation. I know that the Government have in their possession proposals for a modest programme of infill electrification, which would mainly benefit freight but would also bring benefits on the passenger side. This should include modest extensions to the existing third rail systems which the previous Government allowed to be halted.

Other proposals would show that the Government are looking to the future, such as electrifying the Midland main line; the work on the Felixstowe to Nuneaton route that is so sorely needed in the freight industry; and the provision of a flat crossing at Newark. This, together with the re-signalling now taking place and the elimination of wasteful paths for five-coach trains that should be formed of 10 cars at least as far as Doncaster, would create at least two and possibly three more paths each hour on the east coast main line, as it needs to build on its place as the premier route between London, the north-east and Scotland. This would not need an immediate cash handout, but the design work and preparations in the supply industries would be immediate and would let the railways know that the Government are listening to them.

Lastly, I turn to the decision made by the last Prime Minister in respect of HS2. There is simply insufficient capacity in the system to plug the gap left by this announcement, and early clarification of the Government’s position on this is necessary.

We will hear a number of maiden speeches, to which I look forward, including one from the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, who is an expert on transport. I hope we shall listen to them all.