HS2 Ltd: Consultants
Debate between Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill and Lord Redwood(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)
I should say from this Dispatch Box that the Government, too, are immensely saddened by the events in Bedford last Friday. Our sympathies are wholly with the relatives of the deceased driver and all those affected by the accident. The Secretary of State for Transport will be making a Statement later in the other place.
In respect of the spend on consultants, the spend in the 2025-26 financial year is for a fundamentally different purpose than any money previously spent on consultancy for HS2. The company was not in control of the contracts it had let or of what work had been done. The effort to find out what work had been done for the money that has been spent—roughly two-thirds of the original budget has been spent and only one-third of the work has been done—is testimony to the way in which the project was managed. Getting control of it means finding out what was done, and that is what this money has been spent on.
Lord Redwood (Con)
When will we have a realistic timetable and budget to complete the works on this much-delayed railway line?
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)
The recent Statement by the Secretary of State for Transport in the other place said that the project—with Mark Wild as the new chief executive and Mike Brown as the new chair of the new board—is now expected to cost between £87.7 billion and £102.7 billion. The first trains are now expected to run between Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon Street sometime between May 2036 and October 2039, and the full scheme, including Euston Station and the connection to the west coast main line at Handsacre Junction, is expected to open between May 2040 and December 2043.
Trains: Punctuality
Debate between Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill and Lord Redwood(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)
It is a very reasonable point. People should be able to rely on public transport, particularly those who do not have access to a car of their own. One reason why I am so passionate, and the Government are passionate, about good performance on the railway, and indeed on the rest of the public transport system, is so that people can rely on it to go to work and create economic growth in this country.
Lord Redwood (Con)
When will we be able to catch an HS2 train to Birmingham? This is a fully integrated, nationalised railway with enormous financial resource, but it never goes anywhere.
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)
The noble Lord needs to get up to speed with the history of HS2, because it has been comprehensively mismanaged by every Government who have had anything to do with it, and by the board and, sadly, by the management of the company that is building it. This Government have faced the most enormous task of sorting it out. I know that Mark Wild, who successfully managed to open the Elizabeth line after many delays from the people who were constructing it, and Mike Brown, who is the chair of HS2, are working as hard as they can to get HS2 open as soon as they can, having first established how much it will cost and how long it will take to deliver—which are two facts that were unavailable at the time this Government took office.
Rail Freight
Debate between Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill and Lord Redwood(3 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)
I am glad that the noble Baroness asked me that question. Network Rail has found some money to do studies on greater access to London Gateway, and that is the right thing to do. The question of electrification is one of the subjects that we need to discuss with the port’s owners, DP World. The other subject is the level crossings, which are probably a greater barrier to more freight trains there. I have recently written to the local district council about this, and my department is looking to have a meeting with DP World, Network Rail and the freight operators to decide how best to take that forward.
Lord Redwood (Con)
My Lords, will the Government speed up digital signalling and proper traffic information in the cab so that there can be more slots for all types of rail traffic, because obviously we want to expand rather more than the Government are suggesting in the short term?
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)
How right the noble Lord is. The digital signalling programme for the east coast main line does absolutely as he describes, which is to give more capacity on the existing track. It is in train, as far as I know; it is on target and on budget for the south end of the east coast main line. It is subscribed to by all the operators, including all the freight operators that use it. One of its principal objectives is to get more train paths out of the same railway.