Great Eastern Main Line

Andrew Turner Excerpts

Tuesday 11th November 2014 Westminster Hall

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Andrew Turner (in the Chair)]

I call Robert Halfon.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I suggest, Mr Turner, as this debate is more directly relevant to the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Chloe Smith), that she go first. I know that she asked to speak after me, but I feel morally that that is the right thing to do.

--- Later in debate ---

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I warmly and sincerely congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Ben Gummer) on securing this vital debate on required future improvements in this vibrant region of the UK. I pay tribute both to the Members present today and to the team that has worked so hard with them on the report over the past year. I had the pleasure of meeting members of the team, particularly Mark Pendlington, who leads the New Anglia local enterprise partnership. I know that many others have also been involved in putting together this excellent piece of work.

The report is particularly helpful in that it sets out the underlying value that proper infrastructure development can bring. We are good at modelling transport benefits, but capturing the gross value added and the broader economic benefit is more difficult. However, the report is an exemplar of how to do that. The analysis will help to reinforce the need for and benefits of the vital investments in the transport system that serves the cities and communities of East Anglia, which, as so eloquently pointed out by my hon. Friend, is the UK’s second largest region in terms of economic contribution and is focused on high-value, white-hot growth industries, such as life sciences and biotech.

Of course, it is not only this region that needs rail investment. As my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) pointed out, there is under-investment right across the railway network. In the past 20 years, we have seen record numbers of passengers taking record numbers of journeys. In some cases, however, the railways have kept up. Satisfaction, punctuality and safety have all increased, and EU figures found that we have the most improved railway in Europe. Despite that, extraordinary growth in demand coupled with a lag in infrastructure investment means that we face overcrowding in some parts of the country and areas where journey times may increase. The great thing is that, as a coalition Government, we are finally realising the vital role of investment in transport infrastructure. We are seeing record levels of railway investment and the biggest investment in rail and rolling stock since Victorian times, with £38 billion being spent over the next five years on maintaining, upgrading and improving the network.

[Mr Andrew Turner (in the Chair)]

Order. I wonder whether the Minister could face the Chair.

[Claire Perry]

Forgive me, Mr Turner. You are quite right to correct me.

It is an opportune time to review the case for investment in the region, which is why the report is so timely. We have already committed to £170 million of track and signalling improvements on the Great Eastern main line next year and have agreed a package of improvements with the Abellio Greater Anglia franchise, including additional services between Stansted and Cambridge and refreshed trains on the Norwich to London route. I was joined by hon. Friends on a visit to road test some of the improvements. In fact, there is a photo somewhere of my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich trying out the new loo—in a mock-up capacity only. It is good to see that we are not standing still and waiting for investment; we are upgrading in line with what passengers require, which means simple things such as new toilets that do not leak, new carpets and seat covers, plug sockets and new lighting. Regarding wi-fi, which is available to all customers on inter-city services and free to first-class passengers, we are trying to find out the future deployment plans. I agree with my hon. Friends that it is an important part of the package going forward and will write to them.

Abellio Greater Anglia will work with the industry to develop and deliver all the Government’s control period 5 projects, including Crossrail, Great Eastern main line infrastructure improvements, improvements to the Ely area, Stratford to Angel Road capacity improvements, a new station at Lea Bridge, and additional peak capacity in 2014 to 2019 into Kings Cross and Liverpool Street to meet forecast commuter growth. There will also be additional freight capacity. We have not discussed freight, but it is an exceptionally important part of the railway mix, and we are considering ways of unblocking lines to allow both and freight and passenger trains to run. This is an incredibly opportune time for such a report. My boss the Secretary of State and I have both read it, and we are looking carefully at how the improvements might be delivered.

I commend the work that the group behind the report has done to unblock some of the long-held barriers of party political or cross-county agendas. It has been refreshing to see a strong cross-party and cross-county approach to the work. My hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich asked whether I had received any representations from the Opposition Front-Bench team, or indeed any Opposition Member, on this subject, but the answer is no. I am unsurprised, however, given that the previous Government electrified only eight miles of track in 13 years and failed to realise the valuable role that transport plays in building economic growth in regions across the country.