Railways: East Anglia Network

Lord Hanningfield Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Hanningfield (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, for obtaining this debate. It gives us all the chance to voice our views and suggestions on how we might improve railways in the eastern region. I also congratulate the Minister on her appointment. As this is one of her first debates, I hope that she will take a particular interest in improving railways in the east.

I am getting on a bit in years, and I have probably been using the railways in the eastern region longer than anyone in this Room. My mother came from a little town called Holt in north Norfolk. The only rail service in Holt today is a steam engine you can take from Sheringham to Holt. I used to go regularly to Holt with my mother during the war, and I have cards sent by my mother to my father saying: “Paul and I will be at Chelmsford station at two o’clock on Saturday afternoon”; I was a two year-old at the time. Since then, I have been using the trains very frequently, coming to London to attend meetings of the National Farmers Union, local government—as most people know—the Association of County Councils, the Local Government Association, and now the House of Lords. I have been a regular user of the railways in the east for 70 years.

I do not think the railways are as good now as they were when I was a two year-old. The service is very unreliable at times. Most people have mentioned the signalling problems. I was one of those caught up in them on Tuesday; the delays were initially an hour. Most Lords have mentioned reliability, and we do not have reliability in the eastern region. Every week there is a disruption to the train service. On Tuesday it was pretty bad because the signals problems were not just in Chelmsford, but in Rochford as well. The whole of Essex, and right up to Norwich, was at a standstill for a long while on Tuesday morning.

It seems to me that in this day and age improving signalling should not be beyond us. Surely, given the technology we have now, signalling could be improved, and virtually all these delays are due to signalling. If some investment could be put into signalling now, we might have a better and more reliable service without billions of pounds of investment. As noble Lords have said, the eastern region is a net contributor, so money spent on signalling now might solve the problems in the short term.

The noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, mentioned the station at Chelmsford. That is another improvement that could solve a lot of problems. The developers will build the station, at no cost to the national Exchequer or even to the rail companies serving the station. There needs to be is a loop just north of Chelmsford back towards Witham. Then the trains could sit in the loop while others came up and down the line. There will be a large car park there which will stop the enormous congestion in Chelmsford at peak times. That could solve a lot of the problems in the eastern region, so I hope that the Minister will take that one up and pursue it, because that could do a lot of good.

Many noble Lords have mentioned rolling stock. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, that our service is pretty shabby, but we could do with a few more shabby coaches rather than none at all. Often, the trains are very short. I now often catch the train at Ingatestone. This was not first thing in the morning, it was about 10 am. The lord-lieutenant and I were standing on the platform, two elderly Peers. We got on the train and there was nowhere to sit down, so we both had to stand up. I felt ill and collapsed on the floor and the lord-lieutenant was holding me up, trying to support me. Initially, no one gave us their seats or anything. Then we were offered a seat and, fortunately, I was helped off the train at Stratford. I must say that the attendants at Stratford station were very good. It was because of the size of the train at 10 am that we had to stand up. So it seems that we could do something better with rolling stock now, rather than waiting years for it.

Those are the particular issues: the rolling stock, the station at Chelmsford and please can we get someone to do something about signalling? Everyone has spoken about the growth in the eastern region. As an Essex man, I know about the growth in Essex in Chelmsford and Witham and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, said, the whole of the county is buoyant. At 6 am, the platform was virtually six deep with people waiting to come to work in London. This is one of the new Minister’s first debates. Let us have her take a particular interest and see whether we can solve some of our problems in the eastern region as soon as we can.