West London Orbital Rail Project Debate
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Derek Twigg
Main Page: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)Department Debates - View all Derek Twigg's debates with the Department for Transport
West London Orbital Rail Project
Derek Twigg Excerpts(1 day, 14 hours ago)
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Derek Twigg (in the Chair)
I will call Ruth Cadbury to move the motion and then the Minister to respond. I remind other Members that they may make a speech only with the prior permission of the Member in charge of the debate and the Minister. There will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up, as is the convention for 30-minute debates.
Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered Government support for the West London orbital.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg, and to speak on an issue that is of particular relevance to Members from west London: the proposed development of the west London orbital rail line. This valuable strategic rail project will connect Hounslow in the west to Hendon in the north-west, avoiding the need to go into central London.
Back in the 1830s, during Britain’s first railway boom, parliamentary Committees signed off thousands of miles of new rail tracks in short order. I am not proposing that we do that today, but I hope to show why the proposal has broad and deep support from councils led by different political parties, a broad range of civic society organisations, the business community, MPs, the Greater London Assembly and the Mayor of London. The Government also supported it in the Budget two weeks ago.