Railways: East Coast Main Line

Lord Grocott Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

Specifically dedicated to improving rail services in this country—that is the sadness of my life over the last however long.

Of course, I understand exactly the point that the noble Lord is making, and it would be churlish of me to say that there have not been any improvements. But we have to have a step change. Too many people are suffering as a result of not having the connectivity we need. Given the noble Lord’s previous role at Transport for the North, he well knows how much investment in public services would mean to the economy and, most of all, to the people across the north of England.

[Lord Grocott (Lab)]

My Lords, it is great to hear my noble friend’s tributes to the railway engineers, who keep the trains going at the same time that they are trying to build in many places new rail developments—which is a much harder job than building a new railway on a completely open tract of land. We may be very good, as we are, with those kinds of engineers. However, on the project for HS2 and similar proposals, particularly the line to Manchester, can my noble friend say whether the department has learned any lessons from the failed attempt to build a high-speed rail network? Virtually every other country in Europe is doing it, as are many in Asia, but we seem to lack the capacity. We really ought to be able to learn some lessons from this.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

My noble friend makes an excellent point. I pay tribute to everyone who is working on the trans-Pennine upgrade. That project is phenomenal and demonstrates that we can deliver on time and on budget when all the key people pull together and work together. As my noble friend says, the performance that we have had in the past is simply unacceptable. Of course we need to look at that, learn lessons and make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes in the future.