Railways Bill

Lord Hampton Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 7th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hampton (CB)]

My Lords, it is always a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker. I associate myself with the chorus of praise for my noble friend Lord Wilson of Dinton. It was fascinating to hear his memories and his opinions.

I am one of the rank of non-experts here. I am a train user—a frequent user of London Overground and the very wonderful Elizabeth line. One of my favourite activities is watching the world go by from a train, particularly if I am lucky enough to get a seat with a table. I have travelled some of the loveliest routes in the UK: Exeter to Newton Abbot; Shrewsbury to Barmouth; Gloucester to Paddington via Stroud; and Oxford to Great Malvern—I commend the work of the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner of Worcester, on that one. I have even done the sleeper from Glasgow to London.

Whereas the noble Lord, Lord Redwood, sees dystopia out of his window, I am back in the world of PG Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, and Flanders and Swann. Flying is a chore; a train journey, when it works, can be a pleasure. But I am old enough to remember British Rail ending unloving and unloved. This is why I welcome the Bill, because it is so important. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix public transport infrastructure in this country.

The Bill has a lot of talk, in the duties, about railway infrastructure, but it lacks detail. Will new or reopened branch lines be planned to get people on the railways earlier in the journey? If we learned one thing from Beeching, it is that people who get in a car stay in a car. These need to be truly linked with buses. One of the recommendations of the House of Lords special committee on social mobility, which the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, and I sat on, highlighted the need for joined-up transport in rural areas. There is little point running buses to stations if they are not linked to train times.

There has been very little talk about resilience. Last week, I was travelling on a train, and it was late. Other trains were late or cancelled, apparently because the rails are now much longer, so they expanded more. This was below 30 degrees centigrade. European rails are subject to much higher temperatures, and to contrasts, with cooler nights. How do they cope? Let us not even talk about snow.

Is there going to be a level playing field for non-GBR activities? The Minister talked about trying to grow rail freight but, for example, to quote Logistics UK:

“Clause 63 requires GBR to reserve capacity for its own services. As such, without amendment to that and other areas of the Bill to strengthen governance, accountability and regulatory balance, there is a risk that freight will be deprioritised in capacity allocation, planning, charging and investment decisions”.


I believe this is also a worry for other passenger rail companies.

What will happen to apps such as Trainline, when the aim is that GBR’s ticketing website will combine the existing 14 rail operator websites and apps into one? The noble Lord, Lord Harper, mentioned this. According to Trainline:

“This creates an unprecedented structural conflict of interest and risks GBR favouring its own retail channels over competitors”.


The Bill talks about upgrading stations but does not mention property. What will happen to Platform4, the merger of London & Continental Railways and Network Rail’s property business? I quote its website:

“Over the next decade, Platform4 plans to unlock surplus railway land for up to 40,000 new homes and around 10 million sq ft of commercial space, including mixed use neighbourhoods with homes, green spaces, shops and hotels in locations such as Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Cambridge”.


What is to happen to railway arches? At best, railway arches are an excellent community asset. Near to me there are arches containing a butcher, a carpet warehouse, a prop manufacturer, sheet metal fabricators and numerous panel beaters and car repair shops. The Lords and Commons cricket team nets weekly in two railway arches in Wandsworth—at this point I shout out for New Era Training which has improved my batting enormously, so I am now merely rubbish. The arches by me in Hackney are being redeveloped, so their occupants are being forced out by sharply rising rents. There must be a supersaturation of microbreweries and coffee shops. There is a real danger that the arches then lie empty.

What about complex developments such as Hampton Court station, which I coincidentally went through on Sunday? The station is held up by scaffolding. Linked to it is a site that has been derelict for more than 40 years, mired in planning issues, recently described by Andrew Roberts of the Hampton Court Rescue Campaign as a national disgrace. At the very least, it is a national embarrassment with all the tourists getting off to go to Hampton Court Palace.

Possibly the biggest opportunity for GBR is in the skills sector, and this does not seem to be mentioned in the impact report or the Bill. There is such an opportunity here for GBR. At the moment, the British Army is the biggest employer provider of apprenticeships in Britain. GBR should make beating that record its target. Will the Minister say whether GBR is talking to the DfT, the DWP and Skills England to provide all-levels apprenticeships, including the badly needed levels 2 to 4 across the board?

With the formation of Great British Railways, we have the opportunity to provide a longed-for, efficient national transport network, boost employment, apprenticeships and social mobility and grow the economy in a true renaissance of the nation’s public transport system. Let us not waste it.