Greater London Low Emission Zone Charging (Amendment) Bill
Helen Hayes Excerpts(7 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Fleur Anderson
Air pollution is like a ticking timebomb for our children. It has been shown that children who live on polluted roads in inner London have smaller lungs, and that their lungs will never fully grow. Pollution also has an impact on the brain, potentially including dementia in later life.
We owe it to our children to have this increased ULEZ zone to clean up our air. We have recently made progress on Putney High Street. Since I did the monitoring, we have a larger proportion of green buses—80%—which has made a significant difference. We need to get to 100%, and the Mayor has a plan. We need this robust action for the sake of our health and children.
Both in this Chamber and on the Environment Bill Committee, I have called many times for a new clean air Act. Mayors, including Sadiq Khan in London, need to introduce measures so that we are able to see an impact across the country. According to Asthma + Lung UK, more than 600,000 people in Greater London have asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and nearly 60% of them live in outer London. Outer-London Members need to be concerned about their constituents and the impact on their health.
I am pleased with the Mayor’s action, including the increase to more than 1,400 zero-emission buses on London’s roads. He has also rapidly expanded London’s fleet of green buses, with the capital now boasting more green buses than any other city in western Europe. He has also delivered a 170% increase in the number of public electric vehicle charging points, with London now boasting more than 11,000—a third of the UK’s total.
Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Does she agree that the Mayor of London has consistently demonstrated that he is doing everything in his power, under London’s devolution settlement, to improve air quality for Londoners? Does she share my concern that he is somewhat hamstrung by the policies of a Conservative Government who, for example, take the vehicle excise duty paid by London residents and spend it elsewhere in the country, and by the fact that London is the only city of its size and scale that has a public transport system that relies entirely on fares and charges for its income? The Mayor of London is showing leadership where he can, but he is entirely constrained by a Conservative Government who do not care about the lung health of Londoners.
Fleur Anderson
I absolutely agree. My hon. Friend is right that a fair amount of the vehicle excise duty is not being spent in London. Despite being hamstrung in many ways, the Mayor of London has been world-leading—he is going around the world to talk about the action he is taking on clean air. What we really need is the Mayor of London being able to pull in the same direction as the Government. We need a national strategy that goes as far and as fast on clean air as the Mayor has done in London. That is why it would be good if there was not only a Labour Mayor, but a London Government, because they would be able to work hand in hand to achieve that. That would be good for all of us wherever we go, and not just in London, but across the country.
Railway Ticket Offices
Helen Hayes Excerpts(1 year, 1 month ago)
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Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I congratulate the hon. Member for West Dorset (Chris Loder) on securing this important debate.
I wish to make a few points the short amount of time available. First, my constituency, which is in south London, has only one tube station, so we are overwhelmingly reliant on services from the 11 railway stations in my constituency to be able to get to work, visit friends and family, get to school, and for shopping and leisure activities. Those commuter rail services are vital for London’s economy as well as for the convenience of my constituents. Only one of the stations in my constituency currently has step-free access.
Secondly, we have seen the erosion of our rail services in recent years. Timetables have been cut, services have become progressively less reliable, and the use of short trains has increased, with consequent overcrowding. My residents are thoroughly fed up at the quality of the rail services they receive week by week, while the costs of those services have continued to spiral.
Thirdly, cuts to ticket offices will have a disproportionate impact on disabled or visually impaired constituents. I am listening to my constituents. My constituent who is a wheelchair user explained to me that when he arrives at a station and needs assistance, he will visit the ticket office, where help can be easily called. How is he to find somebody to help when there is not that single anchor within the station?
Fourthly, the proposed model is set up to fail. We saw this with police stations. When the police closed all their front counters in my constituency and popped up in supermarkets once a week, residents could never find them, so the service was never used and it declined. I put out a survey to my constituents, and 96% are opposed to these measures. I implore the Government to listen to residents up and down the country, scrap these measures and keep our ticket offices open.
Small Businesses in Railway Arches
Helen Hayes Excerpts(1 year, 7 months ago)
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Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
I have sought this debate to bring to this House a number of serious issues affecting small business based in railway arches.
There are more than 5,200 railway arches across the country. They have historically provided affordable workspace for a wide range of businesses. They were sold by Network Rail on a 150-year lease in 2019 to Telereal Trillion and Blackstone Property Partners, which established the Arch Company to manage them. Sixty per cent. of those arches are in London, and they are typically clustered around key urban centres and near major transport hubs. There are 324 arches in my Dulwich and West Norwood constituency.
The Arch Company reported a £45 million profit in the 2021-22 financial year. I would be grateful if the Minister could reflect on that figure as I set out some of the issues that railway arch-based businesses in my constituency are currently facing. The issues are twofold. First, I will raise the impact of a recent rent review process on a number of car mechanic businesses based in my constituency. Secondly, I will raise a number of wider issues arising from the Arch Company’s lettings policy in the Brixton and Herne Hill areas of my constituency.
Turning first to the impact of the recent rent review on small businesses, I have been contacted by several car mechanics who run businesses based in railway arches in the Loughborough Junction and Camberwell parts of my constituency. Those are long-standing small businesses that typically employ two or three staff and usually take on apprentices. This sector is under pressure at present as a consequence of changes in the market for vehicles and the increase in electric vehicles on our roads. There has been a drop in traditional business, and there is a need to learn new skills, which comes at a cost. The customers of those businesses are also under financial pressure. Many have older vehicles, which are essential for their work, and they are facing a cost of living crisis—they cannot afford to pay more for vehicle maintenance.
The car mechanics—several of whom I know were hoping to be in the Public Gallery but have been caught out by the business concluding early—all tell of the same experience: the Arch Company has sought to double their rent. I know that the Arch Company has argued that the level of rent those companies have been paying is low—below market level—but the market rent for car mechanic businesses based in railway arches has been established for a long time, and the business model of those businesses is based on it. If a proposal for a rent increase effectively smashes the business model of a whole sector, that cannot be allowed to pass without challenge.
Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)
My hon. Friend is describing the experience of businesses in her constituency that are tenants of Network Rail. She might be interested to know that Transport for London provides quite a different kind of service and relationship with its tenants. It is estimated that 99% of tenants in railway arches under tube lines are small and medium-sized enterprises. TfL paused rents when businesses were no longer trading during the pandemic. Laura Sevenus Swimming Tuition and W6 Gym are two examples of small businesses in my constituency that benefited and are now thriving thanks to a positive partnership approach by TfL. Does she agree that that is the right way to go and that maybe Network Rail can learn lessons from TfL?
Helen Hayes
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention because she highlights very clearly the contrasting approach Transport for London takes to businesses in exactly the same physical circumstances, and how it is possible to run a different model that both benefits businesses and secures rental income for the landlord.
The car mechanics in my constituency have described the Arch Company as being difficult to negotiate with. They try to call the office, but the telephone is not answered. They receive an unexpected visit to their premises, and feel intimidated. The Arch Company will not engage with them as a group of businesses, despite their often being co-located on the same street of railway arches.
What car mechanics in my constituency have experienced has all the hallmarks of a rent maximisation approach, which has little regard for the individual small businesses it affects and which risks traditional light industrial uses being squeezed out in favour of gentrifying businesses that can pay a higher rent, regardless of the importance of the existing businesses in terms of the livelihoods they provide and to the customers they serve.
The National Audit Office investigated Network Rail’s disposal of its railway arches to the Arch Company. It found that, although the sale itself achieved value for money and the achievement of Network Rail’s own objectives, it was
“concerning that tenants as stakeholders did not form part of the aims of the sale and that they were only fully considered late in the process.”
The sale places no residual obligations on the Arch Company with regard to existing tenants or rental levels. The Arch Company does have a tenants charter, but this is a voluntary document that is not enforceable. The NAO further concluded that, in the future, there should be much more engagement with stakeholders affected by such a sale, and that any Government Department engaged in a sale should consider whether to place explicit customer protections in the contract of sale.
I understand that, following my interventions, the Arch Company has stepped up its engagement with some of the car mechanic businesses, and has agreed a new lease with a zero rent increase for one of them. I will take the opportunity afforded by this debate to urge the Arch Company to do the same for all of these businesses, so that they are protected in the medium term, have the time and space they need to recover from the impacts of the pandemic and to reskill where needed for the age of electric vehicles, and can continue to afford to offer highly valued apprenticeships.
The second issue I am raising with the Minister today is the impact of Network Rail and the Arch Company’s policies on two town centre areas in my constituency, Brixton and Herne Hill. In both cases, the difficulties began prior to Network Rail’s sale of the arches. Back in 2015, Network Rail announced that it needed to complete major works to two lengths of viaduct and planned to terminate the tenancies of businesses occupying the arches and evict them. A very effective community-led campaign, which I supported, ultimately secured the right to return for these businesses and protection from a cliff-edge rent increase, stepped over seven years.
The works dragged on and on. What was supposed to be a year turned into two years, and then five, creating enormous “dead zones” in both town centres, reducing footfall and making it very hard for businesses neighbouring the arches to trade. The works started to come to an end just as the pandemic took hold, meaning that the trading environment for returning businesses was very challenging. The situation was then made even worse in Brixton by the failure of Network Rail to notice during the preceding four years of major works that there was a significant structural problem with the northbound platform at Brixton station, which overhangs Atlantic Road, where many of the arches are located. This resulted in a further year or more of scaffolding and vacancy.
Once all the scaffolding was removed, the viaduct along Atlantic Road and Brixton Station Road looked—well, exactly the same as it did before. Almost seven years of appalling damage done to the economy of Brixton town centre, and Network Rail had not bothered to remove the buddleia growth, fix the brickwork or improve the lighting. It had even created a new problem: in wet weather, dirty rainwater now drips down from the northbound platform on to shoppers on Atlantic Road. It has felt as if Network Rail has been treating Brixton with total contempt. Following my intervention, it has agreed to do some additional works to improve environmental quality in the area, but frankly that is too little, too late after years of damage to our local economy and community.
Many of the refurbished arches in Brixton and Herne Hill still stand empty: by the Arch Company’s own figures, 25% of the arches in my constituency are currently vacant. The Arch Company says that it is open to approaches from start-up businesses and organisations that cannot afford to pay full market rent, but whenever I or the local ward councillors have approached the company on behalf of a business willing to rent an arch, no lease has been forthcoming. I know of two organisations, both of which would make a brilliant contribution to Brixton town centre, that would like to rent an arch, but both have only been offered levels of rent far above what they can afford.
I bring these issues before the House today because railway arch-based businesses make a significant contribution to local economies and local communities, providing goods and services and creating local jobs. The very nature of this estate has been that it provides affordable space, but in disposing of the arches to the Arch Company, Network Rail essentially cut those businesses adrift, placing them outside of Government regulation and at the mercy of the lettings policy of an entirely private organisation.
We should be doing all we can to protect and nurture small businesses during difficult economic times. As such, I ask the Minister the following questions. First, what representations has he made to the Arch Company in relation to the rent increases being faced by its tenants? Does he think the doubling of business rents in a single step during a cost of living crisis is an acceptable way to treat small businesses? Will he consider what protections can be given to long-standing railway arch-based businesses from unmanageable rent increases? What support is available for car mechanic businesses to gear up to maintain electric vehicles? Finally, will he work to strengthen the duties of Network Rail to consider and mitigate the economic impact of its operations and to maintain its estate properly? We owe it to the thousands of business owners, employees and customers to ensure that railway arch-based businesses are treated fairly and supported to thrive.
Rail Investment and Integrated Rail Plan
Helen Hayes Excerpts(2 years, 11 months ago)
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Grant Shapps
I will make a bit of progress.
For anyone who claims we are failing to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail, I want to set the record straight. Northern Powerhouse Rail is going ahead. It is going to bring faster services, there will be big capacity increases, and it is going to do this in the most logical and efficient way. [Interruption.] There are those—and I hear the hon. Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell)—who say all we are doing is electrifying the trans-Pennine route. That is wrong. We are actually investing £23 billion to build Northern Powerhouse Rail and unlock east-west travel across the north of England. [Interruption.] Yes, we are. Trains from Leeds will reach Manchester in just 33 minutes, cutting journey times almost in half. Seating capacity between Leeds and Liverpool will more than treble as a result of the integrated rail plan, and the journey between Leeds and Bradford will take just 12 minutes.
Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
Can the Secretary of State confirm that, while he is letting down passengers across the north and the midlands, he is also letting down passengers in London? Can he confirm what conversations he has had with his colleagues in the north of England about the 43,000 jobs that will be put at risk if he does not agree further emergency funding for Transport for London? Can he say why he is neglecting our transport system in London three days from the current emergency funding running out?
Grant Shapps
At the risk of straying outside the bounds of the debate, I have already paid £4.1 billion to TfL to ensure the services can carry on running. I hope that, as a London MP, the hon. Lady will have a word with the Mayor of London and ask him where the plan he should have sent to us on 18 November is, because that is what is preventing a further settlement to a system we have of course always said we will support.
Free Travel for Under-18s: London
Helen Hayes Excerpts(4 years, 4 months ago)
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Ruth Cadbury
One fifth of London’s secondary school children travel across borough boundaries and many travel long distances to go to the school of their choice, or even the only school that they could get into, because school places are at a premium in London, as we know, with the rising population and the gap in creating sufficient school places quickly enough.
A mother from Hounslow said that
“it’s hard to find money to put on an oyster card. I know it’s not free—someone has to pay—but the Zip Oyster card for kids did help.”
Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
The cost that we are talking about for a family with three children in secondary school is £45 a week. Does my hon. Friend share my concern about how families that have faced furloughing or lost employment, and may already be on low incomes during this covid-19 crisis, could possibly be expected to meet that additional weekly cost?
Ruth Cadbury
Absolutely. We keep hearing in this House how universal credit and the other benefits just do not keep up with the real cost of living in London. My hon. Friend is absolutely right.
We have covered the inequality issues, but the decision is also technically complex and costly to administer. As I say, 30% of young Londoners are entitled under national regulations to free travel anyway, and so will continue to have that right. That includes those on free school meals or other benefits, and those with special educational needs and so on. But there is currently no system in place in London for working out which children qualify. Indeed, any such system would be more complex than any in England, with seven fare zones and over a fifth of children crossing borough boundaries to get to school. Will the home council administer the scheme, or the one where the school is based, or will TfL or the schools administer it? We do not know.
Rachel Maclean
I thank the hon. Lady for her point, but the £1.6 billion bail-out for Transport for London was a temporary measure in response to the covid pandemic. Of course it is right that taxpayers across the country subsidise London travel because of its importance to the economy, but is it right that taxpayers across the rest of the country should be paying for measures that are not available in their own areas?
Rachel Maclean
No, I will not give way, because I need to finish, and I have given way multiple times.
According to Transport for London, the average journey to school is less than 1 kilometre and can be walked in 10 minutes or cycled in even less time. Transport for London is creating extra space for walking and cycling as part of its Streetspace for London programme, while encouraging school leaders to work with local councils to create “school streets”. Those schemes temporarily close roads to traffic at school gates during drop-off and pick-up time, making school entrances safer and more welcoming to people on foot and bikes.
Furthermore, we should be building on Transport for London’s excellent community projects such as STARS, which works with more than 1,500 schools, nurseries and colleges across London to inspire young Londoners to travel sustainably, actively, responsibly and safely by championing walking, scooting and cycling. The majority of primary school trips are already walked or cycled, and there is the potential for thousands more journeys to school for pupils of all ages to be made by—
Rachel Maclean
With respect, I cannot give way because I have some material to get through, and I wish to place on record my responses to the questions that have been raised by Members.
Finally, I would like to assure the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth that the Department is working closely with Transport for London on the response to covid-19, to ensure consistent messaging and guidance for public transport users. The Department is in daily contact with TfL to understand the levels of service that TfL is operating and to plan for increasing demand for public transport as the economy reopens.
Question put and agreed to.
Rail Timetabling
Helen Hayes Excerpts(6 years, 5 months ago)
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Chris Grayling
What we have to see is the completion of the investment programme, the delivery of the new trains and, above all, the sorting out of the timetable. Every train in the north of England is being replaced with either a brand new train or a completely refurbished one. The new trains are due to start arriving later this year. We have big investments taking place. The transpennine rail upgrade, at £3 billion, is the largest investment; it is part of the next rail infrastructure investment programme. It is just hugely frustrating that what has been done so far has yet to deliver the improvements it should to passengers and has actually made things worse. That must stop, and stop quickly.
Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
My constituents have already faced three years of disruption and continual delays at the hands of GTR, Southern and Southeastern, and the chaos from the new timetable is making things worse. The impact of that chaos is more than simply inconvenience; it is taking its toll on relationships, family life and employment, and we have the heart-rending sight of students unable to get to important exams on time. The Secretary of State previously refused, for entirely political reasons, to pass control of suburban rail services in south London to Transport for London. Will he now accept that my constituents deserve their rail services to be run by an organisation that will put passengers ahead of profit, and hand them to TfL to run?
Chris Grayling
The only thing I would point out, respectfully, to the hon. Lady is that she has just called for the transfer of rail services from Southeastern to Arriva, which runs Northern, while other people are telling me that Arriva is not capable of running Northern. That is the reality of what she is arguing for.
Thameslink
Helen Hayes Excerpts(7 years, 3 months ago)
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Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bailey. I congratulate the hon. Member for St Albans (Mrs Main) on securing the debate; it is a welcome opportunity to raise the misery being caused to my constituents as a consequence of the failures of our rail services.
It is hard to overstate the cumulative impact of failing rail services on my constituents in Dulwich and West Norwood over the past two years. The hon. Lady mentioned the bottom three franchises for customer satisfaction being Southern, Southeastern and Thameslink. Those are the only franchises that operate in my constituency, so we have, on different parts of the route, different combinations of misery. Commuting by rail from my constituency is a universally difficult and miserable experience.
The debate is focused on Thameslink passenger services, which I will return to in a moment, but it would be remiss of me to contribute to a debate on one part of the GTR franchise without putting on the record the utter misery caused to my constituents who travel on Southern Rail services, which are also run by GTR. I have heard from almost 2,000 constituents over the past 18 months about the catastrophic impact that the collapse in Southern rail services has had on their employment, family life and wellbeing.
The Government’s response to Southern Rail’s problems has been, frankly, too little, too late. While everyone understands that many of the problems can only be resolved through infrastructure investment, there is much more that can and should be done in the short term to provide passengers with timely information about delays and cancellations, and to re-establish effective negotiations with the trade unions to address the safety concerns that have been raised and to resolve the industrial dispute. The fact that the chief executive of GTR, who has responsibility for the Southern Rail franchise as well as Thameslink services, received a pay package of almost half a million pounds last year simply adds insult to injury for my constituents.
Thameslink services run through Tulse Hill, Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction stations in my constituency, in addition to peak-time services through Sydenham Hill and West Dulwich. Those services are vital for people who work in areas of central London, including Blackfriars, Farringdon and the City of London, or areas of intensifying employment, such as King’s Cross and Old Street, or those who need to access the tube network from Elephant and Castle. I was a Thameslink commuter to Farringdon, and then to Blackfriars, for the best part of 20 years prior to being elected to Parliament.
Thameslink services have been becoming more overcrowded and less reliable for many years. Passengers who use stations in my constituency have suffered the consequences of residential densification further down the line, meaning that it is now often impossible to get a seat or even to stand comfortably on trains that were not previously so full. With the exception of Herne Hill station, which has lifts, the stations in my constituency are not accessible. Loughborough Junction is a particularly challenging station to use, with very steep steps and narrow, windswept platforms. At peak times, passengers at Loughborough Junction are often unable to board trains at all because they are so overcrowded. The Loughborough Junction area is currently subject to considerable new residential development, increasing the number of homes in the area. New homes are badly needed, but they must be supported by investment in transport infrastructure to ensure that everyone in the community can continue to get to and from work and to access the services they need.
The current services are also desperately unreliable. There are delays and cancellations every day, and my constituents are forced to organise their lives in order to mitigate the impact of services they should be able to rely on. New rolling stock is slowly being introduced, and while to some extent those trains provide a more comfortable environment with more standing space, they are often just as overcrowded as the old ones. There is a view among many passengers that they should have been designed like Overground trains, with seating at the sides, to allow much more space for passengers who have to stand. We need 12-car trains across the network and investment to ensure that they can be accommodated at every station to maximise capacity for passengers.
I am also concerned about the potential loss of the direct service from my constituency to Luton airport. My constituents will now only be able to access that really important service by changing at Elephant and Castle, where trains are even more overcrowded. I am concerned that fewer trains will stop at Tulse Hill, Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction overall as a consequence of the timetable changes, in a situation where we need capacity to be increased, to cope with both current and future demand.
I am concerned that services currently run by Thameslink through Sydenham Hill and West Dulwich stations and not included in the current consultation may be lost if, in the Southeastern franchise renewal process, they are not considered to be sufficiently profitable. Those services are small in number but provide a vital route to work for many of my constituents. We need much more ambitious investment in rail infrastructure than is currently proposed to meet the transport needs of my constituents, as both our local population and the population further out of London on the same commuter lines continue to grow.
I have the following asks of the Minister today. The experience of the failure of the temporary timetable on the Southern network into London Bridge tells us that the robustness of the timetable in relation to the capacity of the network is a paramount consideration for reliability. When will the Minister confirm the capacity of the Thameslink core in relation to the proposed new timetable? Will he commit to exploring the reopening of Camberwell station between Loughborough Junction and Elephant and Castle stations, to provide extra capacity and a modern, fully accessible station environment to serve local residents, staff and patients travelling to King’s College Hospital and students travelling to the University of the Arts London sites in Camberwell and Elephant and Castle?
Will the Minister commit to ensuring there is no drop in the number of services through Loughborough Junction, Tulse Hill and Herne Hill stations following the consultations on the new timetable? Will he commit to securing the future of services to Blackfriars from Sydenham Hill and West Dulwich? Will he commit to exploring the reopening of the eastern platforms at Loughborough Junction station, to enable trains to stop there between Denmark Hill and Elephant and Castle? That would double capacity at Loughborough Junction station. Will he commit to working with Transport for London to open an Overground station at Brixton East, between Denmark Hill and Clapham High Street stations, to relieve pressure on the Thameslink network?
Will the Minister work to persuade the Secretary of State, who has not previously been inclined to do so, to work in a cross-party way with the Mayor of London to transfer all suburban rail services in south London to Transport for London to run, so that profits can be reinvested in the improvements we so urgently need, rather than being used to reward the poor performance of senior leaders in the private sector? Finally, can the Minister tell my constituents when they will be able to rely on rail services to run to the agreed timetable, without delays and cancellations, and when they can stop having to organise their lives around the failures of the GTR franchise, including the Southern railway?
Southern Rail
Helen Hayes Excerpts(7 years, 9 months ago)
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Maria Caulfield
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. It is as if he is psychic, because that was going to be my very next point. As well as the investment, the Secretary of State has asked the Rail Delivery Group to bring together Network Rail and the rail operator so that when there are problems on the tracks, passengers have a better experience through better customer service and information about alternative routes. We have all felt frustrated on a Monday morning when engineering works have overrun and trains have been cancelled because of poor communication between Network Rail and the rail operator. Those two points, however, do not take away from Southern rail’s poor performance. As we move from the dispute to a normal rail service, my constituency wants a good rail service.
Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
I thank the hon. Lady for bringing the issue to the House. Her constituents and mine suffer the daily misery of the failure of Southern rail. Does she agree that Southern’s performance has been so bad over the past two years that it should have been stripped of its franchise, and that it is because of a problem with the structure of the franchise that that has not been contractually possible? Will she join me in calling on the Secretary of State to look as a matter of urgency at ways in which the franchise can be stripped from the operator and handed to Transport for London or another part of the public sector, such as the Department for Transport, to run in the interim while the service is sorted out?
Maria Caulfield
The Secretary of State is on record as saying that once the dispute is resolved, the performance of Southern rail will have to be tackled. I can only speak for myself when I say that I would look at all the options. It is not acceptable to my constituents and others across the country that only 66% of train services run on time. I know of people who are losing, or who have lost, their jobs and who are moving home because of that poor performance. People miss flights from Gatwick airport, which is on the rail line; I even know of a young couple who missed their honeymoon because of Southern rail. Getting to and from work is also an issue. I have been contacted by many parents who have had to arrange extra childcare because they have been unable to get home in time to collect their children from school.
I agree with the hon. Lady. I want the Minister to outline the timescale within which we expect performance to improve. We cannot go on for months with poor performance. Before the dispute, Southern was fined £2 million for its poor performance, but given how much it earns from the contract, that is a drop in the ocean. It would be helpful if the Minister could outline the timescale within which he will measure Southern rail’s performance and the sanctions that will be imposed on it if it does not improve the service.
This is not just about the number of trains that are cancelled or delayed. A huge number of constituents contact me when trains fail to stop at stations. If people in rural constituencies such as mine miss their stop because the train keeps going, the next stop is often 10 miles away, which can mean a taxi ride home. They might even be dropped off at an unmanned station without any lighting or a taxi service. The situation is heart-breaking. There are more issues than the sheer number of cancellations and delays. My Lewes constituents often find that their train will terminate at Haywards Heath for no reason. It usually divides, but if there is no driver or guard it just terminates and they are left to their own devices to try to get home. Short trains are also causing severe overcrowding. There should be no reason for suddenly cutting a 12-carriage train to eight carriages. There are also huge concerns about the timetable for 2018. Residents are deeply concerned about the proposals to cut the only direct services from the town of Seaford to London.
Although I welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement of a refund equivalent to the cost of a month’s travel for season ticket holders, it is not working. Not one of my constituents has heard from Southern rail, and I would be surprised if anyone else has, either. They were supposed to be contacted in January and told how they would get the rebate, but not one of them has heard anything. That goes hand in hand with the everyday experience of the delay repay scheme. The Government have tried to reduce the length of the delay for which people can claim from 30 minutes to 15 minutes, but time and again I hear from constituents who say that the system is not working. Passengers have to apply online or by post, and they often find that their forms are lost or their claims are challenged by Southern rail. Most of us do not bother using Delay Repay, so the train operator is getting off scot-free. Our constituents do not receive compensation for the taxis that they have to take when their train does not turn up or when it terminates early, or for the extra childcare that they have to pay out for. Simply compensating people for the rail fare that they have paid is not enough.
Part of the issue is the key card system. Unlike in the TfL system in the zones around London, passengers have no opportunity to use a contactless card; they have to use a Southern rail key card. It must be pre-loaded before a journey, which means that passengers cannot spontaneously get on a train without pre-loading their card first. If they have not left enough time and the IT system is not coping, the ticket will not have loaded on to the key card in time, and they will not be able to get through the barrier. It is a cumbersome, clunky ticketless system, and it is part of the reason why people cannot claim their refunds.
We were promised flexible season tickets for people who travel, as I do, two or three times a week. With more people working at home, the traditional season ticket is rapidly becoming outdated. Southern is still consulting on the flexible season ticket that we were promised and has not delivered on it. I would be interested to hear an update on that from the Minister.
Another key issue that I want to outline is the experience of disabled passengers. Particularly in the towns of Seaford and Newhaven, an appalling bus replacement service has been provided, using buses that are not wheelchair accessible. Many disabled passengers have been turned away over the last few months, because they have been unable to get on to those buses. Taxis have been ordered, but disabled passengers have experienced long waits. That is unacceptable, in my belief. Even when the rail service is working, disabled passengers have to pre-book and hope that their booking will result in station staff being there to help them. Many disabled passengers have contacted me to say that the assistance that they have booked has not been available at the station and they have been unable to get on to their train.
A final point on the experience of disabled passengers concerns toilets. There are no “Changing Places” toilets in my constituency. Haywards Heath, which is a big junction for my constituents, has had a huge upgrade. It has a new car park and a fantastic system that allows wheelchair users to take a lift directly to the platform, but there are no suitable toilet facilities. That led to one of my young constituents, who goes to Chailey Heritage School, having to be changed on the platform because there was nowhere among the new all-singing, all-dancing facilities for her to be changed. In this day and age, that is completely unacceptable.
I welcome this week’s announcement, and it is a huge relief to us all that the dispute seems to be coming to an end. For us, it is the first step in getting an improved rail service. The experience over the last 18 months has been absolutely dreadful. We dread returning to a normal Southern timetable. We want a good Southern timetable with trains that turn up on time; that are not cancelled or delayed; that do not terminate early; and that are accessible for all passengers. If that does not happen, we want the reassurance that Southern will be taken to task and dealt with by means of financial penalties or, if it comes to it, a change in the franchise.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Andrew Jones)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Maria Caulfield) on securing the debate. I know that this subject is close to her and her constituents’ hearts, and we have had much ministerial correspondence on the matter. She has, as ever, spoken up for her area with a strong voice, whether it has been about services for Lewes’s famous bonfire night celebrations or about replacement bus services.
I understand the frustration that my hon. Friend and her constituents have experienced with the service that they have had. I expect Govia Thameslink Railway to be able to run a reliable and predictable service for passengers—that is an entirely reasonable expectation—so I can only imagine what it must be like to be dependent on such an unpredictable service not just as a commuter, but as someone who needs to travel regularly. There are two elements to improving the service: the industrial relations issues; and the long-standing, underlying service problem areas. I will go through each in turn.
As hon. Members will be aware, trade unions and Southern rail have been in dispute since mid-April last year. The dispute has centred on driver-operated doors, and it has caused significant disruption to passengers. However, moving to a way of working in which the driver controls the train doors and the second person on the train focuses on customer service will be much more passenger-friendly and will allow a higher performing and more resilient rail service. The unjust industrial action arising from the dispute has held back GTR from delivering a modern, safe and passenger-focused railway. We want a railway that is fit for the future, but the dispute is getting in the way.
Although the dispute is a matter for the union and the train operator to resolve, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and the Rail Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard), have been doing everything they can to limit the impact of the strikes on passengers. On strike days and to cope with the overtime ban, additional measures have been put in place to help people to get to work.
A huge amount of work is taking place behind the scenes to try to get a resolution to the dispute. That is why I welcome ASLEF’s offer to suspend industrial action, allowing for a new round of intensive talks towards the end of this week. Indeed, those talks might be happening right now. I hope the talks end in success, which would allow us to get on with improving services and, most importantly, ending the misery that industrial action has inflicted on hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The travelling public are still subject to strikes by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, however. I assure hon. Members that the train operator has contingency plans in place. On RMT strike days—such as next Monday, on 23 January—tickets are accepted on alternative GTR routes and other operator’s services, while bus replacement services are in place where there is no alternative rail option. In the meantime, GTR has trained a large number of office staff as contingency conductors to provide cover on non-driver-only operation Southern routes, and additional GTR and agency staff have been deployed to stations to help passengers.
Let me turn to the issue on which the dispute centres: the driver-controlled operation of the doors. Essentially, DCO involves someone driving and also controlling the doors without the need for a guard. Drivers on Southern have been striking against what others in GTR have been doing for years. This way of working is perfectly safe. DCO services have been operating effectively at very busy stations on a third of the UK network for more than 30 years. In fact, more than half the trains running in Britain, including all trains on London Underground, operate with drivers in full control of the doors. Indeed, more than 60% of GTR’s current services operate without conductors.
We are investing about £2 billion of public money in providing longer modern trains across the GTR network, which is all about delivering extra capacity for the travelling public and coping with increased demand for services. These trains are fully equipped with the latest technology that allows the driver fully to operate the train from the cab, in line with modern practice. When Ian Prosser, Her Majesty’s chief inspector of railways, published his GTR DCO inspection report recently, he confirmed that driver-controlled operation on Southern is safe. The Office of Rail and Road has concluded that the proposal fully meets legal requirements for safe operation.
Given that such a significant voice has assessed the practice as safe, as well as the safe record of operating such services, I hope that the unions will now acknowledge that they have no credible argument for saying that DCO is an unsafe method of operation. GTR has publicly stated that there will be no compulsory job losses until the end of its franchise in 2021 as a result of this modernisation, and affected conductor staff will have their pay protected.
Our railways are a success. Passenger numbers are growing. In fact, they have more than doubled since privatisation—from 735 million journeys a year in 1994-95 to 1.7 billion in 2015-16. That is a fantastic record. We will obviously need more people, not fewer, to help passengers in the future. The changes are about freeing up staff time so that they can focus on providing customer service and helping the travelling public on board the trains. If the unions insist on retaining outdated ways of working, it will be impossible to deliver the benefits, including improved reliability, that the new technologies can bring.
GTR has always been clear that there will be more staff on board trains in the future than there are today. They will be there to help passengers, including by giving customer assistance to individuals at unstaffed stations. Some 99% of on-board supervisor contracts have now been signed, and more than 80% of the additional 100 on-board supervisors who have been recruited have started their role. We hope that the new talks will end the months of misery and hardship faced by the travelling public, and the problems that my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes articulated so powerfully today.
I turn to some of the underlying service problems. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is acutely aware that performance has not been good enough in the past and has deteriorated again in recent weeks. We need to be clear about what is causing that, because some of it has been more about the failure of infrastructure operated by Network Rail than failures by GTR. The instruction to drivers not to work non-contractual overtime on rest days has also had a significant impact on services.
None the less, I assure the House that the Department is determined to resolve the issues that exist as quickly as possible. Some of them should be addressed by the work that Chris Gibb has done as head of a new project board, working with GTR, the Department for Transport and Network Rail to explore how to achieve a rapid improvement in services. My hon. Friend the Member for Lewes asked specifically about the timing of improvements. I will check on that work and write to her with further information.
It is appropriate that GTR is held to account for the quality of its product, and the Government continue to do that. GTR must work with Network Rail to deliver better passenger services as soon as possible. We monitor closely the performance of all rail franchises, and the franchise agreement contains clear penalties and incentives so that operators are penalised for repeated poor performance in the areas for which they take direct responsibility.
Helen Hayes
It is straightforwardly the case that the measures in the franchise agreement covering Southern rail have not provided sufficiently significant incentives or deterrents to improve performance—they have not worked. Will the Minister comment further on that?
Andrew Jones
We know that there have been significant problems on the line, but the biggest single blockage to progress is the gun that is being held to everybody’s head by the industrial action. The huge investment in new rolling stock will deliver a vastly improved service, with improved capacity and comfort on the trains. All we need is for that £2 billion investment to reach customers as fast as possible.
Helen Hayes
I agree that the industrial dispute needs to be resolved, but the fact remains that Southern rail was failing long before that dispute even began.
Andrew Jones
I agree that there have been operational challenges which, as I said, have resulted in poor performance and predate the strike. That is clearly correct, but the strike has taken those challenges much further and compounded the underlying problems.
As I said, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has brought in a team to head a new project board, bringing together all the different parties to explore how we can make a rapid improvement in services. However, it is hard to do that when such huge day-to-day operational challenges are caused by the strike action. I am happy to agree with the hon. Lady’s point about the underlying problems that predate the strike—that is without any doubt. Under the regime of performance monitoring for the franchise, penalties have been levied against GTR for cancellations and short formations, and they will continue to be so levied.
My hon. Friend the Member for Lewes mentioned compensation, which is important, given the cost of rail travel and the level of disruption. Last month, the Government announced a multimillion pound compensation package for season ticket passengers in recognition of the hardship experienced by those who have suffered long delays, cancellations and disruption in recent months. She said that no one in her constituency had heard about the scheme, but they should have been hearing about it this week, so I am grateful for her feedback, which I will take back to the Department. I ask her to make sure that such practical, on-the-ground experience is continually fed back to me and my ministerial colleagues. The Delay Repay 15 scheme has been introduced to make it easier for Southern passengers to claim compensation.
It was appalling to hear my hon. Friend’s points about disabled services. We are dealing with Victorian infrastructure and trying retrospectively to install accessible and friendly services. This urgent work has been undertaken by successive Governments of all parties. Progress has been made, but there is a long way to go, and the experience she mentioned of someone having to be changed on a platform is obviously utterly unacceptable. The task of improving our public transport system for people with disabilities is important to the Department and one of my personal priorities. We will shortly be publishing an action plan for how to improve accessibility for people with disabilities on all our public transport, and for the first time we will include cognitive impairment and dementia in that.
This stretch of the network is one of the most intensively used in our country, having seen a dramatic increase in journey numbers over the past few years. I mentioned the dramatic passenger growth across the network as a whole, but the growth on this stretch is right at the top end of that spectrum. We need to increase capacity and update and modernise the service.
I fully recognise that strikes have caused disruption for passengers and that the current performance is far from satisfactory. It is utterly not good enough. ASLEF’s offer to suspend industrial action is a step in the right direction, and I hope that with these latest talks we can get on with improving services and, most importantly, ending the misery that this industrial action has inflicted on hundreds of thousands of passengers. We need to resolve this matter so that we can get back to the important task of improving the line and delivering the service that my hon. Friend and others across the House are rightly demanding for their constituents.
Rail is a critical and successful industry. It has been a success by all measures—growing passenger numbers, its safety record, and levels of investment from the public and private sectors—but when it fails, it highlights just how critical it is and how much people depend upon it. We need to work together to make the improvements that my hon. Friend is right to demand for her constituents.
Question put and agreed to.
Southern Rail
Helen Hayes Excerpts(7 years, 11 months ago)
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Paul Maynard
I recognise my right hon. Friend’s concern. All I can say to her is that I expect all train operating companies across the country to do their utmost to ensure that they run a timely, efficient, reliable and punctual service. I hope that will be the case with whoever emerges from the franchise competition for South West Trains.
Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
I have here analysis of the feedback from the 1,000 constituents who have been in touch with me about the performance of Southern rail, and it is a catalogue of misery. The failure of Southern rail is affecting my constituents’ work, family life, health and wellbeing, and they have had enough. When will the Minister confirm rail devolution for London, so that Transport for London, which has a proven track record and high levels of customer satisfaction, can run these services? When will my constituents’ Southern rail misery end?
Paul Maynard
I recognise the picture that the hon. Lady paints of the problems her constituents are facing. I hope she will join me in urging all sides in this dispute to return to the negotiating table and reach an agreement that puts the needs of passengers first, not the interests of the rail unions.
Govia Thameslink Rail Service
Helen Hayes Excerpts(8 years, 3 months ago)
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Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
I congratulate the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) on securing the debate and on his excellent contribution. I echo and agree with much of what has been said. My constituents use Southern services into London Bridge and Victoria from stations such as East Dulwich, Peckham Rye and North Dulwich, and they use Thameslink services from Sydenham Hill, Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction. It is fair to say that, before the current crisis, services were already unacceptably poor. The works at London Bridge were entirely mismanaged. Southern produced a timetable that was entirely unsustainable, had no resilience and was understaffed. Satisfaction with GTR services is among the lowest in the country and, within that, the lowest levels of satisfaction are within the metro part of the service and among commuters.
My constituents have shown immense patience and forbearance with their rail services while dealing with entirely unacceptable consequences to their quality of life. The impact on family life includes people being unable to see their children at bedtime, being consistently late picking up their children, being unable to meet caring responsibilities, losing jobs, having to move jobs and just simply dealing with the additional stress within lives that are already busy and stretched. That is simply unacceptable.
Much has been said about the industrial dispute. The responsibility for good industrial relations rests with all parties. The seeds of the dispute go back a long way, and are about understaffing. GTR started the franchise with fewer drivers than the previous franchisee reported having in post. How was that even allowed to happen? GTR has been too slow to recruit and too slow to train.
On top of all that is the introduction of the emergency timetable. I was grateful to the Minister for meeting me a few weeks ago to discuss the issue, as Southern presented a sort of plan for getting through the industrial dispute. Then, with no warning and no briefing at all, the emergency timetable was introduced. In my constituency, that involved pretty much the wholesale withdrawal of commuter rail services on the Southern part of the network. Only one train out of four or five an hour run, and my constituents simply cannot get on to those trains because they are too full.
The franchise needs to be withdrawn. Enough is enough. Patience has run out. The franchise needs to be passed to Transport for London, which has a track record of running decent Overground rail services in the capital. That is what passengers want and there are huge levels of support for it. I accept that TfL cannot do that in a single step but we are in a crisis, and I call on the Minister to take action to allow the Department for Transport to take over in the interim while arrangements can be made to transfer the franchise to TfL.