High Speed Rail

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Monday 28th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr McLoughlin]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for that suggestion and will think on it a little more.

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

When it comes to the impact of High Speed 2 on Lancaster and the rest of the north-west beyond—dare I say—Manchester and Merseyside, if I understood it correctly the Secretary of State was saying that high-speed trains from London to Manchester would enter the west coast main line just above Wigan, stopping at Preston, Lancaster, Carlisle and Glasgow, so that we in Lancaster will therefore also get shorter journey times.

[Mr McLoughlin]

The answer—[Interruption]—I am sorry, I was trying to follow exactly what my hon. Friend was saying and checking the points he was making—is that shorter journey times to Lancaster will certainly be a result and a benefit for his constituents.

Oral Answers to Questions

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Thursday 17th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr McLoughlin]

I am always looking to learn lessons from everything that happens on the railways. I believe that the private sector has brought tremendous growth of passenger numbers and improvements in services on the railways. Like the last Government, I am committed to seeing the east coast main line offered to franchise as well.

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

9. What steps he is taking to accelerate major road-building projects.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Stephen Hammond)]

The Highways Agency is undertaking pilot schemes to demonstrate how four major road schemes can be delivered more quickly. So far, these have been accelerated by 18 and 21 months. We have achieved this by making widespread changes to the planning, design and construction regime.

[Eric Ollerenshaw]

I thank the Minister for that reply. I understand that the planning inspectorate’s report on the possible M6 link road to Heysham port around Lancaster may be on the Minister’s desk. Given that the plans for that were first sketched out in 1948, could somebody speed things up a little bit, as this will be a vital route for Lancaster, the north-west and indeed Northern Ireland?

[Stephen Hammond]

We received the examining authority’s report and recommendation on the scheme from the planning inspectorate on 19 December. The report is being considered carefully. We are obliged under the Planning Act 2008 to decide whether to grant a development consent for the scheme by 19 March 2013. I am looking to see whether we can accelerate that even faster.

West Coast Rail Franchise

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Thursday 6th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr McLoughlin]

I believe that the way in which the west coast main line is run by Virgin has been very popular with Members, not on the Government Benches but on the Opposition Benches, who have announced their intention to support that franchise.

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State for the speed with which he has dealt with this and the integrity that he has shown throughout in dealing with this difficult problem. My constituents are still seeing much needed improvements, with extra carriages and the line to Blackpool, but I hope he will forgive me if I remind him that Fleetwood remains a town with a railway line but without a railway service.

[Mr McLoughlin]

I do not mind my hon. Friend reminding me of that, and I know that he will do so on many occasions when he gets the opportunity. I look forward to having discussions and conversations with him about how we can possibly improve the situation in which his constituents find themselves, but I hope that he welcomes the fact that the line has come part of the way to his constituency, if not yet all the way.

Oral Answers to Questions

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Thursday 18th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Stephen Hammond)]

The hon. Lady knows that the northern hub package will certainly improve opportunities for the Calder valley line between Leeds and Manchester Victoria. The high-level output specification announcement confirmed the go-ahead for the Castlefield corridor scheme. She knows that the 2012 Budget set aside a package of measures to increase line speeds and look at the rolling stock.

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

T7. Are there any plans in the Department to begin to look at the commercial condition and strategic future of Britain’s smaller ports, such as Fleetwood and Glasson dock in my constituency?

West Coast Main Line

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Westminster Hall

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

It is great to follow the hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Albert Owen). Across the divide, we share many concerns with other hon. Members who represent the regions, as I do. We have come from Liverpool via Milton Keynes, Runcorn, Rugby, and Holyhead to Lancaster, but I am not sure whether there is a through ticket for that; perhaps the two groups might suggest one.

[Philip Davies in the Chair]

I congratulate my fellow Lancastrian, the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper) on getting the debate under way, but I have one stricture about her Dick Turpin analogy. I was always taught that, because he took from the rich and gave to the poor, he was a good guy. Never mind; perhaps history has changed since I last taught it.

I welcome the debate, and like many hon. Members with constituencies on the west coast main line, I have received e-mails about it and have seen the petition. All credit is due to the Backbench Business Committee for getting this debate under way so quickly. My concern, which is shared by others, is that regional areas such as mine depend hugely on rail connections. I will not repeat what the hon. Member for Ynys Môn said, but I share what he said about the impact on business and improvements on the west coast main line.

My confidence in the Department for Transport has increased following what has happened in the past two years, particularly in my part of the north-west. The Government have made commitment after commitment on rail in a way that we have not seen for a long time under previous Governments. They include electrification on a huge scale all the way to Blackpool and extra carriages, and that represents a total completion of the commitment on the northern hub. Before my time, people petitioned Government after Government on that. My confidence has increased, and I believe that the present Department for Transport is fully committed to those improvements and understands the impact on the regions. That is why I have a bit more confidence in the process.

My hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart) spoke eloquently about commercial sensitivity. We have not seen all the minutiae, and we now have judicial sensitivity on top of commercial sensitivity, so we are left just with the bits that we have seen. Credit is due to the two companies for their impact and for trying to get across to us what has been going on.

Like many other hon. Members, I speak as a regular user of the west coast main line, and I have my own opinion of the Virgin Stagecoach service. I have seen an improvement in the service over the past couple of years. One of the worst problems in my part of the north-west was overcrowding, so I was pleased with the Government’s support for extra carriages, which has had an impact.

I believe that the Virgin Stagecoach service is relatively good, and many of my constituents have signed the petition, so they agree. However, I accept that it can always be improved and that we need more value for the amount of money that has gone into such commercial operations. The issue is how to weigh that up.

I have talked to FirstGroup, and its offer seems to be attractive, with extra trains, extra carriages, reduced overcrowding, smart ticketing and even reduced fares on some services. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey), I shall be parochial about what happens in my constituency. My concern about the FirstGroup bid was that it was talking about faster trains from Glasgow to London, and my immediate instinct was that that would mean fewer trains stopping at Lancaster, but I have been reassured that Lancaster will have the same number of stops, so I am pleased about that. I am also pleased about the offer to upgrade parking arrangements at Lancaster station and at Preston, which affects me down the line.

The biggest impact will be the through service to Blackpool, which edges through part of my constituency. Discussions are still taking place, but FirstGroup is prepared to consider the possibility of a stop at Poulton station, which is not in my constituency but is the nearest station to Fleetwood. I shall digress slightly because we have a new Transport Minister and, as his Parliamentary Private Secretary knows, he will hear from me frequently about Fleetwood, which is one of the 10 biggest towns in the country still without a direct rail connection.

[Mark Hendrick (Preston) (Lab/Co-op)]

The hon. Gentleman touched on Preston station, which is in my constituency. Like him, I am concerned about the developments. We have had an excellent service from Virgin, and I have been pleased with it. We have had many promises from FirstGroup, but does he agree that a major concern is whether jobs will be secure with FirstGroup if there is a change in the franchise? Clearly, the Government are intent on continuing the deal, and FirstGroup won the franchise, subject to the review. Is he, like me, worried about the job situation and ensuring that the hard-working staff continue in employment?

[Eric Ollerenshaw]

My neighbour in Lancashire raises a valid point about staff that had not previously been raised. There have been improvements in staff approachability and deliverability, and I hope that whoever wins the bid—whether Virgin or FirstGroup—will protect those good employees. I have seen real improvements.

Another matter that we need to be secure about if FirstGroup takes over is travel cards, about which constituents have contacted me. For many years, I have received promises, but I am still not sure about long-term use of the cards. Many senior constituents—I declare an interest because I include myself—find them extremely useful.

I will finish my contribution shortly to enable other hon. Members to speak. For me, the public relations battle has not been particularly useful. On the performance at the Transport Committee, Virgin tried to say that it provided an altruistic service, but it is, rightly and like any other commercial company, in it for money. In 2011, Virgin Rail and Stagecoach declared a dividend of around £10.5 million. That is good, because they ran a good service, but let us not hide the fact that they provide a commercial service at a profit.

I have an issue with Virgin because a year or so ago Grand Central proposed a direct service from London to Blackpool, and I understand that Virgin used its franchise to block that. Let us be under no illusions. The competition is a commercial one between two companies, and one of them is Virgin, but I call it Virgin Stagecoach because Stagecoach has a 49% stake. We must understand the situation.

When we are through the judicial review, I am sure that Ministers will provide us all with a degree of security that lessons have been learnt about private finance initiatives under the previous Government and about the way in which the upgrade on the west coast main line caused chaos for years under that same Government. Because of Ministers’ commitment to the north-west, electrification and the northern hub, I have great confidence that they are as determined as I am, as a regional Member of Parliament, to see an improved service that provides better value for my constituents. I feel that we will see that when the judicial battle is over.

At the end of the day, however, I am not interested in which company runs the service. I want a better deal for my constituents and for the Department to be able to put its hand on its heart and say that it did its best to deliver that deal and to provide security about the risks.

Rail Investment

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Monday 16th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

It is nice to know that the hon. Gentleman looks at things through such a political lens, rather than from the perspective of his local community. This investment will take place from 2014 to 2019. It will make a huge difference to communities such as his. I only wish that he could support it wholeheartedly and without reservation.

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

May I add my congratulations to my right hon. Friend on how much she is doing in the north-west to deal with the neglect of the previous Government? What will she do about towns such as Fleetwood in my constituency, which had 13 years of rusty railway lines and still have no trains on them?

[Justine Greening]

That is really a local matter for my hon. Friend’s regional passenger transport executive. As he will know, we are electrifying the Manchester to Blackpool railway line, which will provide real benefits. I am keen, as colleagues across the House know, to understand what people want next. If I know what they want next, I can set about seeing whether we can provide it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Thursday 12th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mike Penning]

That is exactly what is being looked at in the Department at the moment. On the motorway network, where variable speed limits help us to sweat the assets, where we can stick to national speed limits we shall continue to do so.

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

15. What progress has been made on the northern hub railway project.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mrs Theresa Villiers)]

The Government have given the go-ahead for the construction of the Ordsall chord and the electrification of the north trans-Pennine route between Manchester and York via Leeds. These schemes will allow faster trains between the north-east, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. Network Rail is undertaking further work on the remaining northern hub schemes. We will consider these in developing the Government’s high-level output specification for rail investment from 2014 to 2019.

[Eric Ollerenshaw]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that if we could complete all parts of the scheme it would be a tremendous demonstration of our continued commitment to further investment in the existing rail structure and to further investment in the north-west?

[Mrs Villiers]

This is exactly the sort of issue that we will consider in preparing our HLOS statement. I recognise the crucial importance for the northern economy of improving rail connections in the north. That is why we have already given the go-ahead to such important parts of the northern hub—earlier than many expected—and we will of course look very carefully at the whole project. It certainly looks to have a good business case, but delivering it will depend on what is affordable.

High-Speed Rail

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2011 Westminster Hall

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

Thank you, Ms Dorries, for squeezing me in at the end of the debate. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I shall try to be brief.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard) and geographical co-partner in the Fylde area, who set the tone for the debate, which has been of a much higher standard than previous debates on this topic. The cross-party nature of the debate today has been extremely successful.

Having said that, I shall disagree with my hon. Friend in saying that we have already had high-speed rail in my constituency. That involved the first west coast main line in the 19th century, which went from Euston station to the Euston hotel in Fleetwood, which was the end of the west coast main line. The train ran at between 30 mph and 50 mph—apparently it did not frighten the cows, but it transformed Fleetwood. As the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper) has said about the railway in her constituency, that railway has now gone, although the line itself is still there. In fact, the Minister has actually stood on that empty railway line, which runs from Fleetwood to Poulton. One can see that the decline of Fleetwood was matched by the decision to end that railway. Perhaps if the 1928 yellow book on rail safety had been put into practice, we would not have had that disaster.

High Speed 2 will be transformative, but the line will go through my constituency, as is the case with other hon. Members who have spoken today. The argument is not between north and south, because there will be similar arguments in the north to those in the south about exactly where the line should be.

Like the constituencies of the hon. Members for Manchester, Withington (Mr Leech) and for Wirral South (Alison McGovern), for my constituency this issue is about connectivity and releasing capacity. I want to add to that something that has been mentioned in the past, particularly by the hon. Member for Blackley and Broughton (Graham Stringer). If anybody remembers the last time that the west coast main line was upgraded, they will know that it took more than 10 years and caused absolute chaos. Anybody who thinks that we can tinker any further with that line and produce any extra capacity must take a serious look at the history over the past 15 years.

I appear to be running out of time, so I will conclude by welcoming what the Government have done already. I particularly support those hon. Members who have said that high-speed rail is not the key answer to the north-south divide, but it is a start. This issue is not about a poor north and a rich south, because we have really successful businesses in the north, including BAE Systems, the nuclear industry and what is coming in the future, but it is about the national economy. For the coalition Government and MPs alike, high-speed rail is becoming the touchstone of the coalition Government’s commitment to do something about that divide between the north and the south, which exists, and even more importantly about links to Scotland. I support the hon. Member for Blackley and Broughton, who asked, “Why did we not start the building from Glasgow and Edinburgh down?” And I also hope that the hybrid Bill, which will be introduced by the Minister, will mention not only Birmingham but Manchester and Leeds, and hopefully Glasgow and Edinburgh, too.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Woodcock]

Let us see what the Minister says today about taking forward what are Labour’s proposals. I want to come on to why it is critical that she strengthen her commitment to the north of England.

[Eric Ollerenshaw]

In the manner of the debate, it might help if northern Members of all political complexions could keep some consensus about the issue we are trying to debate.

[John Woodcock]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. I am trying to set out the grounds for a consensus. I might suggest that if people did not keep intervening on me—[Interruption]––and disagreeing with me, I might be able to make more progress.

High-speed Rail

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 13th July 2011 Westminster Hall

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

For the benefit of hon. Members, I will try not to repeat points that have already been made. I will also try to obey the strictures of my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart) about the north-south divide, although I do want to say something about that.

Like others, I will avoid references to long history, although I shall mention the original high-speed line—the west coast main line in the 19th century. It went from Euston station in London to the Euston hotel in Fleetwood. We also had at one time a ferry to Scotland and to Northern Ireland, so the Scots and the Northern Irish had the benefits of coming to Fleetwood. Unfortunately, we have no ferry now. We still have a railway line in Fleetwood, but we have no trains on it. Nevertheless, we are supporters of High Speed 2, and that is despite the fact that most of my constituency is 50 miles away from Greater Manchester. For the benefit of those who are not north-west MPs, I should point out that the north-west is not just Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

For us, the issue is the capacity that the project will release on the west coast main line. According to the figures that I have seen, the only increase in capacity that we are going to get in the next 10 years is one of 12%. However, the passenger load has already hit that figure, as anyone who travels on the line will know. We need capacity to be released.

There is a solution to all our problems and the debate about where the line should go in the south: we should start the other way round by building now from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and then slowly build downwards while there is a discussion in the south about where the line should end up. However, I am not sure whether civil servants could cope with that thinking.

Let us consider the figures and the real issue about the north-south divide with reference to my own county of Lancashire. If we look at gross value added in terms of what we contribute to the national economy, we see that it has been going down for the past 10 years. In 1995, the gross value added figure for Lancashire was about 88.7% of the average. By 2008, we had gone down by 10 points—that is the real issue. When the average transport spend per head in London is £802 yet it is £333 in the north-west, people rightly ask questions. For me, the key is capacity and maintaining what the coalition Government promised, which was to try to rebalance the growth in the regions, which were clearly failed by the previous Government in the past 10 years.

I want to finish by putting a technicality to the Minister. I understand that the hybrid Bill—I am not an expert on such measures—will deal with only the route from London to Birmingham. We desperately need to maintain support for the project. Somewhere in the Bill, there needs to be a mention that that is a first step that will lead to a second step to Manchester and Leeds and then, we hope, a third step to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Railway Expansion

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 27th April 2011 Westminster Hall

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Southport (John Pugh), who gave us a macro appreciation of these rail systems, and he obviously speaks with great experience and a degree of frustration. I want to deal with a micro issue that affects my constituency, but I hope that it illustrates some of the points that the hon. Gentleman made about people’s frustrations.

First, however, I want to make a couple of general points, prompted by the comments of the hon. Member for Blackley and Broughton (Graham Stringer). I served on a development agency for four years and I was a councillor for 17 years in what was then quoted as Britain’s poorest borough. If we had spent the money that we subsequently spent year in, year out on system-built council estates and projects to upskill people on getting the transport link right, the rest would have followed, and we would have saved an immense amount. I want to discuss that in the context of regeneration.

Secondly, I congratulate the Minister and the coalition Government on doing the unexpected. Many of us did not expect what happened in the capital budget round, when so much was made available, particularly to the north-west. I am talking about the electrification of the lines between Liverpool and Manchester and between Preston and Blackpool and about the extra coaches on the west coast main line, which will help to relieve some of the pressure. I know full well that the Minister is determined to get the new contracts right and to have longer contracts so that we can deal with the explosion in the number of customers on the west coast main line. As the hon. Member for Blackley and Broughton said, the Government’s support for High Speed 2 is also important.

I should put on the record my total support for the hon. Gentleman’s concept that we start from the north and go south. While the home counties have their little difficulties, let us get on with building High Speed 2 from the north. I would start from Glasgow and Edinburgh and prove that we are going to reunite this nation. If we see this project actually happening, that will, of itself, provide the psychological boost that we want in the north and in Scotland. I totally support that concept.

I hope that the Minister does not see this as a north-west conspiracy, although I sometimes wonder what would be wrong with one. However, I want to focus on the town of Fleetwood in my constituency, which has the unenviable record of being one of the largest towns—it has a population of 58,000—without a railway connection. Funnily enough, it was the original end of the west coast main line in the 19th century. We have a Euston hotel because the line ran from Euston station to Fleetwood, where, before the railway managed to get over the Lake district, people got off the railway and got on the boats to get to Scotland. That rail line disappeared with the Beeching axe, as it was known. The four and a half miles of track between Fleetwood and the nearest railway station, Poulton-Le-Fylde, still lie unused. Fleetwood suffered recently when Stena Line pulled the ferry service to Northern Ireland, and the ferry service to the Isle of Man has also gone. To be fair, Fleetwood is at the end of the line for the tram upgrade from Blackpool. That in itself possibly offers some future improvement through getting bigger and faster trams on the line, but in the interim, overruns in the contract have nearly devastated a lot of small family business in Fleetwood; however, at least we are getting near to its end.

The key to Fleetwood’s regeneration is the railway line. The Fleetwood master plan states:

“The reinstatement of the line is physically and operationally feasible.”

That takes us back to what the hon. Member for Southport said. As other hon. Members have said, some of these schemes are small-scale when compared with what happens in London. The plan continues:

“It would create significant economic and social benefits and a positive impact on the local economy supporting further sustainable growth that is hard to envisage without a rail link.”

At the moment, Fleetwood has a tremendous fish processing industry. The bulk of that fish no longer comes from the fishing fleet, which I think is down to two and a half boats, but comes in at night by truck from every other fishing port in Britain down a narrow A road. Even with the freight possibilities, rail could provide momentum to the expansion of an indigenous industry.

I want to illustrate that such a project could be seen as an example of the big society. The Poulton and Wyre Railway Society trust has operated for five years, and I hope the Minister can come and see at some point what it has done to restore Thornton station. It estimates that to reopen the line now would cost £5.5 million, and it hopes to apply for grant funding. I am asking the Minister for support. The trust is negotiating to get the lease for the remaining bit of the line, from Poulton to Fleetwood, to be assigned to it by Network Rail. That would save money, but the dealings with Network Rail have now gone on for more than two years. These are enthusiasts and volunteers, but I must say that the local council, Wyre borough council, supports them. I pay tribute to Councillor Don MacNaughton, who has been remorseless in trying to get this moving, but we seem to have hit an impasse in dealing with all the strands of Network Rail. I would be extremely grateful for any support the Minister could give. She stood beside that track before the general election, so she understands where it goes and the possibilities therein.

I am also interested in hearing from the Minister about the tram-train concept—I have met with a group to discuss that—which operates in Germany and which I understand might be tested in Rotherham. To be fair, that scheme was started under the previous Government. Particularly as Fleetwood is now getting the upgrade of a tram system, such a scheme could provide another solution, albeit a long-term one, for an area that badly needs uplift. I talked about the uplift to the psychology of the north-west from High Speed 2. If work on such a line were started in Fleetwood, that would in itself motivate the people there to realise that they can stay there, bring up their children and run a business, and that they can expect their children to get jobs there. That is the critical nature of the scheme.

In the Association of Train Operating Companies 2009 report, the Fleetwood-Poulton line was fourth from top in terms of cost-benefit when compared with other lines. Such schemes are possible; they do not need the mega-millions and billions that London has. One could argue about that and the justifications for it in different ways. However, we need ministerial support to unlock the connections among Network Rail, the Poulton and Wyre Railway Society and the council, to see if we can provide one more link in the chain that we need across the north-west—I accept what other hon. Members have said—and provide the lift and regeneration we need.

[John Pugh]

It would seem to anybody listening to the hon. Gentleman expand on his scheme that a very small amount of money is needed to make a very important change. We could almost call it a social experiment, which, if it comes off, we could learn from and apply elsewhere. Does he agree?

[Eric Ollerenshaw]

I am grateful for that intervention, because the hon. Gentleman puts the possibilities into words better than I can.

The scheme and the enthusiasts are there, and, as the Minister has seen, the track is there bar one mile of it, but I am sure that we can easily borrow a mile of track from some other disused railway. I am asking for some ministerial support for the scheme, particularly in respect of Network Rail, and for another demonstration from the coalition Government that they are committed to the north and to the north-west in particular.