West Coast Main Line

Baroness Keeley Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Westminster Hall

[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies, and to follow another hon. Member from the north-west. I apologise for being absent during the first part of the debate; as I notified the Speaker, I was attending a funeral in my constituency earlier this afternoon.

Like many hon. Members, I travel on the west coast main line every week. Since first entering the House, I have seen the service improve greatly over the past few years, when it has been run by Virgin. Thinking back to 2005, when I was first elected, many colleagues flew to London and back rather than using the train, which is not the case now. The service takes around two hours from Stockport to Euston, and there are three trains an hour. Since the upgrade—which was, indeed, painful—to the infrastructure on the west coast main line and the introduction of Pendolino trains, passenger numbers have grown from 13 million to 31 million.

The debate this afternoon is about letting the franchise for the main line go to FirstGroup, even though there are strong concerns about that company. I shall focus on those issues in my remarks. There are worries about FirstGroup’s bid, as the company will make premium payments of £5.5 billion during the core term, based on 66 million customers being carried. That point is important; the number of passengers has increased from 13 million to 31 million, but can it increase to 66 million?

Compared with FirstGroup, Virgin Rail Group bid premium payments of £4.8 billion. That amount was based on 49 million customers being carried, which I think is much more realistic. I find it hard to see how the number of customers carried on the west coast main line can more than double, and if it does not, FirstGroup will not have the income to pay its premium payments. We have seen unrealistic bids in rail franchising that turned out to be undeliverable. After winning bids for the east coast main line franchise, Great North Eastern Railway and National Express fell short of their forecasts and were forced to hand the franchise back. There would be more chaos down the road if a similar thing happened.

I want to focus on FirstGroup’s track record, which, in Greater Manchester, is not at all positive. As a constituency MP, I have had very negative experiences of the way in which FirstGroup operates as a public transport provider in Salford and across Greater Manchester. During my first few years in the House, the company undertook a major reorganisation of routes and bus service timetables in our constituencies. As time is short, I shall refer quickly to the restrictive and extremely disruptive impact that that had on constituents. Although a different mode of transport is involved, it indicates how FirstGroup regards passengers and its customers.

For example, a bus service from Leigh to Bolton was re-routed and changed to run hourly, so that it went nowhere near the major supermarkets that many of my older constituents, in particular, wanted to visit. After the alterations, people had to change buses, cross a busy dual carriageway and walk 500 metres uphill to make the same journey that they had previously made on just one bus. At the time, many people told me that those journeys became impossible for them. FirstGroup’s changes, in spite of many representations being made to the company, had a debilitating effect on older people’s lives, chipping away at their independence. They also had a major impact on families, because many families have one member or more who commute into Manchester.

A single parent in my constituency needed to travel 10 miles into the city for her work. She had arranged her working hours completely around one of FirstGroup’s services, which the company threatened to withdraw. It was the only way that she could get to work. I found myself, as a new MP, constantly making representations, presenting petitions and putting concerns forward.

Perhaps worst of all, given the economic situation we are in, changes made by FirstGroup became a barrier to people’s ability to work. Little Hulton ward in my constituency is in the top 10% of the most deprived wards nationally. Only 53% of the people there have access to a car. There are very few local sources of employment, so constituents have to travel to find work. However, FirstGroup withdrew the bus stop for services from that ward to Manchester, even though that bus service allowed people in that deprived part of my constituency to travel to work. The withdrawal also made it much more difficult for people to search for work. I believe that FirstGroup’s attitude and its changes tied the hands of people searching for jobs by restricting their options for work to destinations that had a bus link to where they lived.

Such changes were not only a major issue five years ago; FirstGroup are still making similar alterations to services today. It has recently changed the frequency of a service to the Roe Green area of my constituency from half-hourly to hourly. When I made representations to the company on behalf of angry constituents—something I have had to do an awful lot as an MP—it responded:

“First keeps its network under constant review, which means services can be changed or reduced”.

That change was made with seven days’ notice.

Following years of bad experiences with FirstGroup as a public transport provider, I have little confidence in the company at all. That feeling is shared by many constituents, as well as more widely. I note that the 2012 bus passenger survey found that 13% of FirstGroup’s users were dissatisfied with its services, compared with only 7% dissatisfaction among Stagecoach’s customers. On value for money, 35% of FirstGroup’s users described themselves as dissatisfied, compared with a figure of 19% for Stagecoach. With similar services, therefore, FirstGroup is not doing a good job, and that has been entirely my experience of the company.

Furthermore, constituents, along with many people who have signed this petition, have expressed their concerns about the franchising process, commenting most unfavourably on their experience of rail journeys with FirstGroup. One constituent told me:

“I want to express my total dismay at First Group being granted the franchise for the North West rail route. Our regular experience of First is little short of scrabbling for a place in a cattle truck. We have actually been afraid when forced into a crowded carriage during a busy period... It would be a disaster if a passenger suffered an epileptic episode or a heart attack under such conditions. The lack of capacity makes the idea of a return journey a nightmare. We are both elderly and having to stand in a crowded carriage is not a good experience.”

In such a context, we must remember that FirstGroup has bid to more than double the number of passengers carried on the west coast main line.

My constituent continued:

“By comparison, Virgin trains have given us nothing but satisfaction. We travel to London regularly to see our family and the service is excellent.”

My constituent concluded that the franchising decision

“seems to be badly thought through—and seems to rest on a desire to increase revenue, rather than provide a service for this era”.

I wholeheartedly agree. I have had years of bad experience of FirstGroup. I cannot face the situation that I think we will find ourselves in if it takes over the efficient, effective service currently run by Virgin. I urge the Minister and the Government to think again.