Railways: East Coast Main Line

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I cannot give the noble Baroness a specific answer, as I am sure she is probably aware, but we will communicate that as soon as we are able to.

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, I do not often find myself at odds with the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, but I am on this. Indeed, yesterday I came up to London and my EMR train from Spalding to Peterborough was cancelled. I had to seek an earlier train, and then, on that Peterborough to King’s Cross line, there were no services between Lincoln and no services from York, because all trains were cancelled due to late working on engineering works on that line. I am afraid it is very disruptive, and if you have to come to London regularly each week, it is surprising how frequently the train service does not run to time or to capacity.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I set off yesterday from Leeds and I was given the warning that there might be delays because of the overrunning of engineering works. Actually, it did not affect my journey at all. Quite frankly, with the sort of engineering undertakings that are happening, I am amazed that overruns do not happen more often. There is an enormous amount of work to do on the railways. It is obviously very disappointing if you get delayed and if there are cancellations, but everything the Government are doing is working towards improving rail services for the travelling public in this country.