Shadow Great British Railways: Chair Appointment Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Department for Transport

Shadow Great British Railways: Chair Appointment

Baroness Randerson Excerpts
Tuesday 12th November 2024

(1 day, 10 hours ago)

Lords Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill Portrait Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)
- View Speech - Hansard - - - Excerpts

Yes, it is a reasonable thing to do. This is not the chair of Great British Railways, which will be established after the substantive railway Bill in due course; this is an arrangement to bring some benefits to the railway to counter the now 31 years of fragmentation and balkanisation, and, in particular, to bring together the three parts of the already publicly owned railway: the rail services division of the Department for Transport, Network Rail and directly operated holdings. It is a very reasonable thing to do and it will deliver results.

Baroness Randerson Portrait Baroness Randerson (LD)
- View Speech - Hansard - -

My Lords, Laura Shoaf has been chief executive of West Midlands Combined Authority, and we on these Benches are pleased that she brings deep experience of devolution, which we hold dear as one of the solutions for the future of our railways. Passengers are impatient to see signs of improvement, so can the Minister assure us that the promise to establish a passenger standards authority will be kept? Will the Government also consider establishing that in shadow form, so that it can get on with the job of improving standards for passengers as soon as possible?