Railways: Franchises

Lord Craig of Radley Excerpts

Wednesday 10th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I answered the noble Lord’s second point yesterday. On the first point, Professor Begg chaired the Commission for Integrated Transport, which was set up by the party opposite.

[Lord Craig of Radley]

My Lords, will the Minister confirm that the Treasury was involved in considering and approving the figures worked out by the Department for Transport that proved to be at fault? If so, will the review take account of the contribution that the Treasury has made to this fiasco?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I am sure that the reviews will look at all causes of the fiasco. The difficulty is that the error was not obvious until officials started looking very closely at the figures in the light of the judicial review.

Roads: Long and Heavy Vehicles

Lord Craig of Radley Excerpts

Wednesday 1st December 2010 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the gross train weight—that is, the all-up weight of a heavy goods vehicle—was increased some time ago from 38 tonnes to 44 tonnes, but the axle weight is considerably lower than that.

[Lord Craig of Radley]

My Lords, will the Minister take into account the number of heavy goods vehicles that have jack-knifed during the recent bad weather and caused considerable traffic delays? Does this need to be borne in mind in deciding on the future of these arrangements?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, one of our motivations for considering a slightly longer articulated trailer rather than using a rigid vehicle towing a draw-bar trailer—precisely the point that the noble and gallant Lord makes—is that we believe that an articulated vehicle will be slightly safer.