Great Eastern Main Line

Chloe Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 11th November 2014 Westminster Hall

[Chloe Smith (Norwich North) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), who is kind in ceding his place. His moment will come very shortly. It is for me to add to the arguments of my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Ben Gummer). As he capably laid out, this has been a big project. It has been a joint project, and we hope it will be successful. It is new for the region to have three counties working together, and that has been extremely important. We speak today with the full blessing of our colleagues on the task force from Essex—those in Parliament and those in the business community—and the many thousands of passengers who are signed up to the report. We have brought those people together for the first time in this kind of work. We have done the detailed analysis and it was our great pleasure to present that in the past few days to the Minister, the Secretary of State for Transport and the Chancellor, who asked us to set up the task force and put together the work.

My hon. Friend explained the ambition we have for our region. He is, in fact, the originator of the hope in our region that we can be the California of Europe. He is absolutely right to have set out what we could have back for the mere £476 million investment that we ask for. The benefit-cost ratio identified in the report is crystal clear and is higher than that for High Speed 2 at £9.50 generated for every £1 invested. That is another of the report’s strong arguments.

We think that the decision from here is simple. As my hon. Friend laid out, we ask for confirmation of the infrastructure improvements and that new rolling stock be provided for. There is, however, the downside: we cannot go on like this. We cannot go on without the improvements we call for in the report. Our constituents and people throughout Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex—including the tens of thousands of employees, students and passengers represented by those who signed up to the report—pay their way in tickets and season tickets, and they know they are not getting the service they deserve. We know they are not getting the service they deserve, and we have been honest about that in the report. The report is frank in saying that to miss this opportunity to invest would condemn those passengers—our constituents—to another decade of misery on this train line.

We cannot go on with such ageing rolling stock, for a number of very good reasons, one being the reliability problems it has caused. One need only to have looked at the Eastern Daily Press and other regional papers over the summer to have seen the chaos on our line resulting from breakdowns and delays. They compound each other, because of the quality of the stock and the infrastructure we are dealing with. We all have examples of constituents who have been prevented from getting to work at all—indeed, prevented from getting anywhere at all. That is not acceptable in this day and age, particularly given that they are already commuting up to two hours a day each way.

Another reason why we cannot continue with this rolling stock is that in years to come, it will be unlawful under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. That underlines the point that now is the time for action on the rolling stock and the accompanying infrastructure improvements.

[Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)]

I thank my hon. Friend, my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Ben Gummer) and the task force for their incredibly important work. For all the reasons already given, I would like to see the rolling stock substantially improved, overhauled and, I hope, replaced with new stock. Does my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Chloe Smith) agree that it is important that we consider the working environment provided by any replacement rolling stock? It must be comfortable and must provide free wi-fi for all passengers, power sockets and the various facilities that commuters and those working on these trains need.

[Chloe Smith]

I endorse the points made by my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour. The task force has been able to secure some short-term improvements—such as the provision of power points—not to all stock across the franchise fleet, but to the InterCity stock that serves his constituents and mine. That, however, just gets us to an equal starting point. We have so much more to do, as the report makes clear.

The task force has laid out the problem and how we can solve it. It has laid out the unique opportunity we have, why now is the time to act, and the consequences of not acting. Such investment does not go ahead without the commitment of Members of Parliament and the partners who worked with us on the report. These things do not happen by accident: we have pulled together a year’s worth of hard work, undertaken not only for those whom we represent, but for many thousands of passengers. I think they stand with us today in saying that these issues must be raised in Parliament, and it falls to us as their representatives to do so. I sincerely hope that we are successful, so that those passengers can once again have faith in their rail service.

--- Later in debate ---

[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.

[Chloe Smith]

Does the Minister agree that it is a great shame that Opposition Members are not present to speak for themselves on the matter?

[Claire Perry]

It is a great shame, but it does not surprise me.

The Government will now be asking Network Rail how to progress the detailed development of the case that has been eloquently made for the line-speed changes, using the funding provided in the current rail investment strategy, to fund the best-value-for-money elements for completion by 2019. The opportunity for shorter journey times will be included in the development of the franchise to 2016, which is to be awarded from October of that year onwards. That could lead to bidders for the new franchise being asked specifically in their proposals how to address the requirements set out in the “Norwich in 90” report, in particular the totemic achievement of the 90-minute travel time. We propose to publish the consultation for the next East Anglia franchise on 1 December 2014, so it is an important time for anyone who wants to make further representations. In future franchise competitions, we expect bidders to give weight to both financial and quality considerations of rolling stock, focusing on passengers.

It is an exciting time for the rail industry across the UK. I heartily welcome the report, which represents an excellent forensic analysis of what can be unlocked with relatively small investment. I look forward to working with colleagues in taking the recommendations forward.