Inter-City Rail Investment

Debate between Alison Seabeck and Kelvin Hopkins

Thursday 9th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)]

It is a real pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Redcar (Ian Swales). I was pleased to hear him say that we should talk about something other than High Speed 2. The money being spent on it is an issue in the far south-west, but we also have a lot of common concerns with his constituency. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allowing this debate, which is important to my constituents and those of other Members who are in the Chamber.

I have lost count of the number of times that I and other Members with seats in the south-west have raised concerns about the need for investment in our inter-city services and improved resilience. Yet again, extreme weather is causing pressure, so we need that investment, but we keep getting batted away by London and Whitehall.

My constituents, local authorities and businesses all rely on rail connections, which have to be reliable and affordable. They also have to work around the need for freight, the importance of which I know my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins) will speak about again today. He is right—if we want to grow our economy in the south-west, we need freight services that work and that fit around essential inter-city services.

We need to manage and plan growth to ensure that people are not priced off trains because of massive rises in ticket prices. Plymouth is more than three hours away from London—it can be three hours-plus-plus, depending on how fortunate people are on the day, and in the not-too-distant future it will take even longer because of the continuing works at Reading. Those works, which were started under the last Government, will make a difference, and there is no doubt that they are valuable, but they will extend the travelling public’s journeys for the moment. Of course, there is also the work on the Whiteball tunnel, which I suspect will mean a journey of closer to five hours.

We also have no air link to the city of Plymouth, and people often ask whether that is sensible for a city of such a size. Frankly, it is unlikely that there will be an airport, despite the hard work of a lot of local groups, without some guarantee of slots in London when the airport there is extended.

We have only two strategic road links into Plymouth. When I chaired the South West Regional Committee in 2010 and we reviewed transport across the south-west, the evidence that we received made it clear that the infrastructure, whether road, rail or air, was inadequate and could not support the level of growth that many local authorities and businesses feel we are capable of producing and adding to the wider UK economy.

Over the years, we have had less investment than any other part of the United Kingdom, with the possible exception of the north-east. Journeys to major cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool all take much longer than a journey to London and are convoluted. Part of the problem that we have on our stretch of line—the main line between Penzance and Paddington—is that to get to those cities we have to go on the slow, shared section of line between Taunton and Plymouth, which goes along Dawlish sea front and is frequently disrupted.

Inter-city train services that connect with community rail services and buses, with reasonably priced car parks at hubs, come at a price, a large part of which has to be borne by the passenger. I was gobsmacked to read the lobbying document that we received prior to the debate from the Rail Delivery Group, which made me ask whether its members ever travel on trains. The main thrust of the document was to act as an apologist for the privatisation process and laud the fact that it has

“significantly increased revenue whilst controlling operating costs.”

Really? Apparently, that has led to a financial surplus, but who benefits from that? Passengers on my wi-fi-less inter-city trains to Plymouth, who sometimes have to stand as far as Exeter, are certainly not feeling the benefit.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

I wish to reinforce my hon. Friend’s point about privatisation. Sir Roy McNulty concluded that our railways cost 40% more to operate than continental railways that are integrated and publicly owned, and that before privatisation, British Rail had—believe it or not—the highest level of productivity of any railway system in Europe.

[Alison Seabeck]

My hon. Friend makes a strong point about the different ways of managing a rail network. When we compound that with the botched franchising process, which exacerbated problems, particularly in the south-west, I think the travelling public are beginning to lose faith. Of course those companies have invested in their services, and there is no doubt that their staff are working hard to ensure that the passenger experience improves—indeed, it has improved and they deserve credit for that. I am still not sure, however, how much that increased revenue has reached down to the far south-west where we still have slam-door rolling stock.

On our line, the new fare for an anytime standard open return from London to Plymouth with First Great Western is £271, and to Penzance—where at least some consideration has been given to the needs of the area—it is £284. If families who are struggling with the cost of living decide to holiday in the lovely south-west—who would not want to come to the south-west?—that starts to look like a very expensive option, unless they can get one of the cheaper deals which, as we know, disappear very fast indeed. I genuinely feel that passengers do not think they are getting value for money.

Plymouth’s inter-city connections are vital to the city’s growth plans, yet spending per person in the south-west is now in negative real-term figures—the hon. Member for Redcar spoke about how his region is suffering in a similar way in terms of investment. How does that square with the supposed policy of regional growth? The total identifiable expenditure on rail in my region has slumped from £286 million in 2008-09 to just £218 million in 2012-13. So much for a Government who believe that growth and investment in infrastructure are linked. Actions speak louder than words.

We in Plymouth are also concerned that we are not on the strategic national corridor, which for some bizarre reason stops at Exeter and does not go on to the 15th largest city in England. As long as that continues and we are not part of the strategic national corridor, we will continue to see poor levels of investment in our routes in inter-city services. Indeed, I would go further and suggest a real lack of interest in Whitehall in any area outside that corridor.

There is no doubt that distance and accessibility impact directly on the way business costs are assessed and on the logistics of companies. It has been estimated that for every 100 minutes of travel time from London, productivity drops by 6%. Tackling that underperformance by supporting our rail links, inter-city services and connections to the main line could be hugely beneficial to the wider UK economy. We are, however, talking a little bit about jam tomorrow. I am sure the Minister will mention the benefits of electrification, but those will not percolate down as far as Plymouth—certainly in the immediate future—partly because of the unresolved issue of the line between Exeter and Plymouth via Dawlish. Any benefits of electrification are decades away, and whoever is in power after the next general election must stop pushing the issue away. That is why we must ensure—as those on the Labour Front Benches have insisted—that High Speed 2 is not some open-ended cheque, and that we keep a lock on how much money goes into it.

I have not even mentioned resilience and the importance of keeping the rail line open to rail companies as well as our local economies. Some £178 million was lost when the line was closed last year because of flooding at Exeter and further down the line, and we had no inter-city service for some considerable time. I cannot understand why it has been so difficult to get the heads of the Environment Agency and Network Rail to agree on a plan. We were told that £31 million had been earmarked for work to ensure the trains could get through, but we now hear that that has gone down to single figures. What is going on? Perhaps the Minister will answer that when he responds to the debate. Is the CEO of the Environment Agency correct when he says that cuts will impact on that type of maintenance? In questions to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for South West Devon (Mr Streeter) asked a question on that issue. Significant remedial investment is needed if the far south-west is to have more than a fair-weather inter-city service.

My key asks for Plymouth and its inter-city connections are: that the Secretary of State continue to guarantee the money for the resilience work at Exeter and beyond, and that it is clearly aimed at keeping the network open and not just blocking it off; that we get an early morning arrival in Plymouth from London, which was promised by the franchisee but appears to have drifted off the agenda, like so much else; and that we benefit from newer rolling stock, rather than the ancient units that currently serve our railway and undoubtedly slow the service down. Demand is expected to outstrip capacity on both branch and inter-city services, so we need confirmation from the Minister today that the displaced diesel stock following the electrification of the main line in south Wales will be cascaded on to the main line between London and Penzance. On that, I will finish and allow other Members to express their concerns.

Rail 2020

Debate between Alison Seabeck and Kelvin Hopkins

Wednesday 3rd July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Mrs Ellman), in her usual expansive and thoughtful way, gave a very detailed assessment of her Committee’s work, particularly in relation to rail franchises. Its excellent and extremely thorough report on public support for the railways and the implications of Government spending plans, as well as the subsequent report on the collapse of the west coast main line franchise, paints a worrying picture of an overcrowded, overpriced and, at times, dysfunctional railway system that needs continued public support.

The Committee also expressed a view on the delicate balance that needs to be struck, but which is not always achieved, between the Government seeking savings and seeking, at times, to micromanage while at the same time not always listening to rail users and lacking accountability, specifically in relation to the franchise process.

From a south-west perspective, we have the great western main line carrying 50% more passengers than it did 10 years ago. Network Rail states that the line is full. In 2002-03, 72 million people used the line, and in 2012-13 the figure was 110 million. The Reading to Paddington trains account for six out of 10 of the most overcrowded journeys in the UK. There is simply no more space for extra trains at peak times to relieve those pressures at the moment.

As the Select Committee acknowledged, the competing pressures mean that freight lines—so important, although that is perhaps not always fully recognised by the House—commuter lines and community lines, as well as intercity services, are almost at breaking point in some areas. On the main line between Penzance and London there is at times single-track running, in part because of the topography. Lines run along the seafront at Dawlish, and locals have concerns about that as the sea level rises.

To the great anger of people living in the far south-west, there is a sense that none of the problems is likely to be resolved because investment in rail has been made elsewhere in the country under successive Governments. We know from answers to parliamentary questions that transport and rail spend per person in the south-west is lower than virtually anywhere else in the country.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

I am sorry to disturb my hon. Friend’s flow. She was talking about the competing demands for freight and passenger capacity. Does she not agree that if freight could be dealt with by alternative infrastructure investment, freeing up the main lines for passengers yet again, that would make a real difference?

[Alison Seabeck]

That argument can certainly be made by people in the south-west, in respect of whether there is scope for realigning the routes for the main line and allowing freight to use some of the older lines. However, the issue is complicated and hugely expensive, as I am sure the Minister would be the first to tell me. There are a lot of people, certainly in the south-west, with a lot of good and interesting ideas. Were the money available, I am sure that Governments of all complexions would be prepared to consider them.

The investment started under the last Labour Government at Reading and in Crossrail will improve reliability and connectivity. However, the geographical constraints on the tracks’ infrastructure in the south-west will continue severely to limit the maximum line speed and extend journey times. If we are serious about reducing pollution and car use, it should not be quicker to drive from Tiverton or Exeter to Plymouth than to take the train.

The fragility of the south-west’s infrastructure has been ignored repeatedly. The recent severe floods affecting the signalling near Taunton, washing away the line at Cowley bridge, has served only to reinforce the view in the south-west that people in Whitehall do not have a clue about the potential for economic growth in the region.