Britain’s Railways

Lord Haskel Excerpts

Monday 24th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

The Government are committed to decarbonising the railway as part of our wider, legally binding target of reaching net zero emissions across the whole UK economy by 2050. Our forthcoming transport decarbonisation plan will set out the scale and pace of rail decarbonisation that is necessary for us to achieve that. The rail network enhancements pipeline—the RNEP—will be updated soon, and in that we will have various schemes which will lead to decarbonisation. Indeed, we are working very closely on research to look at how we can also decarbonise the vehicles themselves; for example, by looking at hydrogen trains. The new industry structure, including Great British Railways, will ensure a more co-ordinated approach to delivering our carbon emissions commitments.

[Lord Haskel (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, as the White Paper states, passenger service contracts work well for local, regional and commuter services, but experience here and elsewhere has shown that these service contracts work less well on intercity routes because they allow less room for innovation. Will there be two types of passenger service contract to allow for this? Where will the line be drawn? Will it be just one size fits all?