Bill Esterson
Main Page: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)Department Debates - View all Bill Esterson's debates with the Department for Transport
(6 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Chris Grayling
The people responsible for this have to pay the cost. In terms of the report, I will be absolutely clear that if I need to take action, I will be ready to take action.
Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)
Before the timetable changed, Members across the House warned about the problem. On a number of occasions, I have warned about the problems for people travelling from Southport to Manchester. It seems that anyone who knew anything about railways—especially the travelling public—warned Ministers about the shortage of drivers, the delays and the engineering works. Given all the warnings, why did the Secretary of State not delay the implementation of the new timetable? Frankly, given the chaos, why is he still in his job?
Chris Grayling
One of the things I want the Glaister report to do is identify why the train companies did not tell us that there was a sufficient problem to delay or halt the introduction of the timetable.