Rail Services: East Hertfordshire

Debate between Lord Haselhurst and Claire Perry

Tuesday 1st March 2016 Westminster Hall

[Claire Perry]

The proposal is to introduce it across all UK franchises at the same time. We will not wait for franchise renewal to come up; it will be introduced. In some cases, where it cannot be introduced as a franchise commitment, it will be funded by Government. We have funding for that, and we are absolutely determined to do it.

The second issue my hon. Friend spoke about is rolling stock. As he pointed out, many of his constituents travel on trains that date from the 1970s, which was a fine decade for fashion but not necessarily a fine one for train quality. Although those trains are still running reliably, which is a tribute to the way they were made and the way they are maintained, they are the oldest electric rolling stock in the country. As both he and our right hon. Friend the Member for Saffron Walden know, the bidders for the new East Anglia franchise have been challenged to specify a massive improvement in the quality of the trains they will run.

In fact, the way we let franchising now is based on both the financial aspects of the bid and the quality that will be delivered. That quality is referred to as the Q score and the weighting for rolling stock quality has never been higher than in this franchise. It is the most significant weighting that has ever been given to rolling stock and we absolutely expect that bidders will include new rolling stock in their bids. That is because, as has been pointed out, the journey time improvements in particular cannot be achieved with the speeds that the existing rolling stock can achieve.

As always, there is a balance to be struck between taxpayers and fare payers, so rather than specify exactly what bidders should do, we have given them the freedom to deliver what they think will give the best performance for passengers. Having visited the CrossCountry franchise only last week and seen the refurbished class 170 trains, I can assure my right hon. and hon. Friends that customers often cannot tell whether a train is new or refurbished to 21st century standards, because in either case it will have the appropriate toilet facilities, and brand new seating and lighting. To all intents and purposes, it looks and feels like a brand new train. That quality is what we are looking for bidders to propose, and my expectation is that the bids will include a high concentration of new rolling stock.

We will also for the first time hold the successful bidder to account contractually for the improvements that they propose for the franchise. We are introducing a contractual customer experience regime, with tough penalties if the operator fails to deliver. At the moment, we have lots of feedback and information, but this will be the first time that we have contractualised those customer experience obligations, with financial penalties if the successful bidder fails to deliver.

As my hon. Friend mentioned, we will see improvements on Great Northern lines, and his constituents will see those improvements even sooner. The deal that was announced last week to replace the wonderful 1976 trains with 25 new six-car trains will bring benefits in 2018. It is worth mentioning that the deal, which is worth just over £200 million, will create jobs right across the UK supply chain from Poole to Hebburn and provide much-needed capacity. My hon. Friend pointed out the capacity problems on the routes, so we can all welcome the improvement.

My hon. Friend is right to raise the question of what can be done about track capacity. Indeed, he and our right hon. Friend are not lone voices. Our hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker) campaigns vigorously on this issue, and support is growing. I am well aware of vocal support for a four-track solution to this long-standing problem. My hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford will be aware that it is a difficult problem in terms of the layout of the track and what surrounds it, and in terms of the platforming restrictions at Liverpool Street. However, as time goes on and as the proposals for developments along the Lea valley come to fruition, the economic case that can be made for this work on the track grows ever stronger.

Although there is no four-tracking solution currently on the cards, I remain interested and I am always happy to discuss the subject with my hon. Friend and the broader group of interested people. However, a three-tracking scheme is being delivered in the current period—it will be done by 2019—between Tottenham Hale and Stratford, which will help to relieve some of the capacity squeeze closer to London.

My hon. Friend invited me to specify other works that will be going on. I do not have the details about other works, but I will write to him to let him know what other enhancements and renewals are taking place on his local lines.

[Sir Alan Haselhurst]

On that point, although I appreciate that the Minister does not have responsibility for airports, there is a problem. Stansted is the only airport in the London system that has sufficient capacity to handle such demand as cannot be satisfied at Gatwick or Heathrow until the Government have decided where an extra runway will be. The problem is that airlines are reluctant to go to Stansted because of the poor quality of the Stansted Express—indeed, trading standards were expressing an interest and wondering whether or not it is right to call it an express, in view of the congestion on the line. Also, that issue has to be reconciled with the ambitions of Transport for London to run a superior Metro service.

[Claire Perry]

As always, my right hon. Friend makes a very good point. He will be pleased to know that I think my very first ministerial engagement was to go and welcome the launch of the new Stansted Express, which is the new connection going from Cambridge, which will operate with increased frequency compared with the old service. At that time, I visited Stansted airport, where the new operators of the service take a muscular approach to wanting to deliver more flights and are also very vocal about the restrictions of the rail service. I was pleased that Abellio Greater Anglia was able to work with Stansted to deliver a very early morning service from Liverpool Street, because previously people were going to the airport and sleeping there in order to catch their early morning flights. The growth of Stansted and of the whole region is a very strong supporting point for the underlying investment case for improving track capacity outside Liverpool Street.

Such work always requires us to bring together the voices of the local community, the local MPs, the local airports and the developers who would like to benefit, and to consider the social value that the railway network could bring to people locally if it was improved. It is a difficult case to make but it is certainly one that I would be very interested to hear.

Before I conclude, I wanted to point out that some comfort is being provided by the current passenger satisfaction scores that Abellio Greater Anglia is delivering. In the six months between spring 2015 and autumn 2015, passenger satisfaction rose by six percentage points, which I think is among the highest scores that the company has ever achieved. In particular, there have been improvements in areas that the franchise holder can influence: passenger satisfaction was up by 17% with the company’s dealing with delays; by eight percentage points with its provision of information at stations; and by 11% with its provision of information during journeys. What we want is an operator that is very responsive to the needs of its passengers, so that when things go wrong it is absolutely committed to providing information and compensation.

In conclusion, I thank my hon. Friend for raising such important matters. I feel that we are on the cusp of a rail renaissance in this country. We have a Government who are committed to spending almost £40 billion during the next five years on improving the rail network, but that money ultimately has to be seen to benefit customers; it will all be wasted if customers do not see and feel the benefit of it.

I am happy that I have been able to set out for my hon. Friend and my right hon. Friend some assurances around the introduction of the compensation offer at 15 minutes and around the fact that new trains have already been contracted to run on the Great Northern lines. Also, I confidently expect that the rolling stock offer that bidders on the AGA franchise will put forward will be better than anything that people in the constituencies of both my hon. Friend and my right hon. Friend have seen up to now.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Haselhurst and Claire Perry

Thursday 11th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Haselhurst (Saffron Walden) (Con)]

What level of assurance can my right hon. Friend give to my constituents who most frequently use the Great Eastern and West Anglia lines that the outcome of the Greater Anglia franchising process will lead to new rolling stock?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Claire Perry)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend and his colleagues, my hon. Friends the Members for Hertford and Stortford (Mr Prisk), for Norwich North (Chloe Smith), for Ipswich (Ben Gummer) and for Chelmsford (Mr Burns), and my right hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel), on leaving us in no doubt of the importance of upgraded, improved rolling stock on that franchise. We are looking at all rolling stock options as part of the process and high quality points will be awarded for proposals to upgrade the franchise. The invitation to tender will be provided to bidders in August of this year.

Rail Services (Chelmsford to London)

Debate between Lord Haselhurst and Claire Perry

Wednesday 28th January 2015 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Claire Perry)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Caton. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Mr Burns) on securing this debate. Hon. Members may be interested to learn that in my very first debate in Westminster Hall we were in opposite positions: he was responding from the Front Bench to my concerns about minor injuries units in my constituency. After he did that fine job as a Health Minister, he held the post I currently have as trains Minister—he probably knows more about trains than I ever will. That was reflected in the thoughtful tone of his comments and his analysis of what is happening on the route.

The overall concern that my right hon. Friend eloquently raised is about performance on the main line. He and I are both really aware of the problems and I deeply regret that performance is not at the level that passengers rightly expect and deserve. He has taken a welcome interest in the steps being taken to monitor and improve the performance of the great eastern main line for passengers travelling both from his constituency and from further afield.

Under the terms of the franchise agreement and the direct award, Abellio Greater Anglia has to provide regular performance updates to the Department and can be subject to punitive actions if performance standards fail to meet requirements. In addition, there has been a lot of ongoing work with Abellio Greater Anglia, including many performance meetings. Only last week, there was such a meeting between my officials, the Office of Rail Regulation and the management team from Abellio Greater Anglia, at which industry representatives were keen to demonstrate what they were doing, along with Network Rail, to improve matters.

As my right hon. Friend mentioned, some improvements have been made. Monitoring practices that are common in other countries are now in place, including remote monitoring of key components on the line, meaning that failing components can be dealt with much more quickly than before. But he identified the fundamental problem: that much of the infrastructure on the line is coming to the end of its working life. There is no quick fix for that, but the ongoing investment that he mentioned will address the problems over time.

As is the case with many other parts of the network, the line has been subject to a big increase in passenger numbers, which have gone up by about 2.5% a year since 2006. The whole railway system is struggling as a result of the increase in passenger numbers since privatisation—overall, passenger numbers have doubled—and, frankly, the decades of under-investment under successive Governments in both track and rolling stock. I am pleased that the Government are addressing the overall picture with an unprecedented £38 billion in investment in the railways during this control period, but the money clearly has to be targeted correctly.

Abellio Greater Anglia has instigated daily tracking of key performance indicators at its depot to maximise or improve fleet maintenance, which my right hon. Friend identified as a particular problem. He also raised four main issues: fatalities, fleet failings, infrastructure failings and operational performance, and I would like to address each in more detail.

As my right hon. Friend said, we have a tragic problem of people committing suicide on the railways. Suicides are a tragedy for the families involved, and they are an awful tragedy for the drivers and other staff who have to witness them and deal with their aftermath. With increased activity on the railways, these problems are having more and more of an effect. Indeed, in the last 12 months, the number of services on my right hon. Friend’s line impacted by a fatality has risen by more than 1,700 to in excess of 8,000.

The industry is taking steps to reduce these tragic incidents. The British Transport police, Land Sheriffs and Abellio Greater Anglia station staff have increased patrols at stations and increased the level of interventions, steering people away from this awful act. I would like to express my thanks to those staff who have saved lives as a result of that work. Preventive measures have also been employed, including the introduction of mid-platform fencing and the trialling of blue lighting—people do not like to cross blue lights, as we learned from a similar initiative on Japanese railways. Action is therefore being taken.

Secondly, I note my right hon. Friend’s concerns about fleet performance. As he said, that has improved slightly, and the figures on average delay minutes since early 2012 have improved by 23%, but I want to see greater improvement, not just stability. As he emphasised, reliability is so important for the people travelling from his constituency.

AGA is implementing more than 100 initiatives to improve the reliability of its rolling stock. That is a huge number, so I will highlight just a couple. There are new resources to undertake more extensive maintenance at night, as well as extensive initiatives to renew critical components. The company is also looking at more forward-looking maintenance planning regimes to maximise availability and reliability on the fleet.

My right hon. Friend made a compelling case for new rolling stock on his line and on other lines, including those serving the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Member for Saffron Walden (Sir Alan Haselhurst). It remains the Government’s ambition to invest in new rolling stock in the franchise, but my right hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford will be aware that the Department is doing everything it can to make sure we deliver more reliable trains—and, indeed, refresh trains—for passengers using the network. I completely support AGA’s goal of reducing fleet delay minutes on the franchise by 20% by October 2016.

Thirdly, on infrastructure, we are all aware that track faults have increased significantly, particularly on the crucial Liverpool Street to Shenfield corridor. Network Rail replaced its renewals contractor in 2014 due to poor performance. We continue to invest to upgrade the route, but that will take time. Resources have been focused in three areas: Liverpool Street station and its approaches; rail defect removal; and the quality of track. I am pleased to say that, at Liverpool Street, Network Rail is nearing the end of its programme of replacing all problematic junctions, refurbishing point ends and carrying out rail replacements at the tight curves on the station approach. All that will improve reliability and sustainability. I am pleased to say that, to date, all the work has been completed on time.

Additionally, the company and Network Rail have worked well together to target further resources. For example, there is a new emergency incident unit based at Liverpool Street station, rather than remotely. The number of infrastructure faults was therefore reduced significantly between November and December 2014, to the lowest number for several years.

Finally, let me turn to my right hon. Friend’s operational concerns. As he and I know, the route has had some serious engineering overruns in the last year. Some have been on a Monday morning, and I can think of nothing more frustrating for a hard-pressed commuter trying to get to work and paying almost £4,000 for a season ticket than to hear these overruns being announced. It is completely unacceptable. My Department has been challenging Network Rail on its performance on the issue, as has Abellio Greater Anglia. Network Rail is constantly being made aware of its responsibility to passengers using the network to complete engineering work at the allowed time. As a result, all possession plans on this part of the network are subject to much greater scrutiny.

The programme to renew point work has been completed thus far with minimal passenger train impact. That is perhaps evidence that Network Rail is taking measures to reduce engineering overruns. I know that my right hon. Friend shares that ambition. The railway is not running steel boxes with wheels; it is moving people. If the Government can do one thing, it is to make sure that the unprecedented investment we are making is delivered for the benefit of passengers.

Everyone, from my Department to Network Rail and the operating companies, needs to sign up to that agenda. Some do it better than others, but there is no excuse for an engineering overrun that affects millions of people, and for not taking it seriously. I am pleased to say that effort is being put into recovering from incidents when they happen. The six-month average delay per incident has dropped by 20% in the past six months, which means that faults are being fixed more quickly.

As my right hon. Friend knows, it was not possible to specify in the short direct award an increase in rolling stock. He will know from his time in the Department that the direct award was introduced to smooth the process of franchise letting. He has made a powerful case for wanting new rolling stock. I am pleased to say that on his route, at least, he will see work going on to refresh the mark 3 coaches. That has been secured within the current franchise.

I visited the place where the new seats and other improvements were being put together and have sat in one of the new seats. The first vehicle is set to be unveiled on Friday, and there is an obligation on Abellio Greater Anglia to complete work on the entire fleet by the end of October 2016. Finally, there will be toilets that do not void on to the tracks, power sockets, new carpets and seat covers, new lighting and repainted interiors. That will make a real difference to the experience of passengers.

[Sir Alan Haselhurst]

The Minister will have heard my right hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Mr Burns)mention the construction of a new station to the north of Chelmsford, which will be beneficial for train loading. It is intended primarily to serve the people who will be living in the Beaulieu Park development, but there is strong local feeling that the station would be more appropriately named “New Hall Chelmsford”, or “Chelmsford New Hall”; I hope that she will bear that in mind.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Haselhurst and Claire Perry

Thursday 22nd January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Claire Perry]

The hon. Lady shares with me a firm commitment to ensuring that passengers have safe and better journeys. That is the point of this unprecedented level of investment. It is within the grasp of us all to hold Network Rail to account. It is an arm’s length public body, and we have a regulator that regulates its investment programme. Network Rail is also accountable to Members of Parliament just as it is to members of the public. She will be aware that we are holding a series of performance summits with the train operating companies and Network Rail, particularly relating to the routes that have shown the worst performance data over the past few months.

[Sir Alan Haselhurst (Saffron Walden) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend tell the House how the feasibility study on the West Anglia line, promised by the Minister of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr Hayes), is being progressed?

[Claire Perry]

I believe that that is part of the whole aspiration for the Anglian upgrades relating to routes, investment and capacity, which has been nicely packaged in the “Norwich in 90” proposals. A series of consultations are currently taking place, and I will write to my right hon. Friend with specific updates on the point that he has raised.