Great Western Railway Routes

Debate between Huw Irranca-Davies and Peter Heaton-Jones

Monday 8th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I am delighted to welcome him to beautiful north Devon. The rolling stock is an essential matter, as it has been left to decay to the point that it is only just fit for purpose. I have held a significant number of meetings with the operators, GWR, Network Rail and the Tarka Rail Association and we have discussed at length the importance of acquiring significant new rolling stock. I am delighted to say that we now appear to have reached a position where there will be a “cascade” of rolling stock. I would rather not use the phrase “cast-off” that was previously used, because I want to strike a more positive note. We will have a cascade of—almost—21st century rolling stock coming towards us for that line.

[Huw Irranca-Davies]

May I take this opportunity to stress the importance of access for wheelchair users? My friend Simon Green from the Bridgend Coalition for Disabled People stresses that, very often, in railway carriages there is space for only one wheelchair, so two people travelling together have to be split up. It would be great if we looked at the possibility of different variations in the new rolling stock.

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. I have travelled on the north Devon line between Barnstable and Exeter, and, quite often, there is no room at all for a single wheelchair user, which is why we need to get this new rolling stock cascaded to us as soon as possible.

Let me turn away from the specifics of the north Devon line to the Great Western main line, which is a vital artery for the south-west. We have talked a lot about the resilience of the line. We absolutely rely on that single rail line to provide us with a transport artery to the south-west. When incidents occur, such as the one in Dawlish, the effects are devastating. Even though people who come to north Devon often jump off the line well before Dawlish—like me, they usually get off at Tiverton Parkway—the fact is that when we have the sort of incident that happened at Dawlish, the whole of the south-west and all the constituencies represented by Members here are affected. We need to ensure that we have the resilience of that line sewn up for the future, which means addressing the difficulties at Dawlish. The right hon. Member for Exeter made the point that the cliffs on one side of the line are just as much a problem as the coast, on the other side of the line. I have seen for myself that that is a problem. We also need to consider this second line—the Okehampton route—that will start to open up a vital northern corridor. I have an interest in such a route, as I represent north Devon.

The flooding issue is also of significance. As I came up on the train this morning, I saw how close the line was to the Somerset levels. Then there is the electrification issue. I absolutely agree with Members from all parts of the House that we need to speed up the process of electrification of the line. I am delighted that it is planned to go through to south Wales, but we need to ensure that we get it down to the south-west.

I add a note of concern here: if we get no significant movement on this until control period 6—in other words starting in 2019—we will be pushed back to the end of the queue. I hope that the Minister can give us some positive news in this regard. In particular, I hope that she can provide us with some reassurance on these two feasibility studies into the resilience and the electrification of the line, which have been mentioned a few times already. Without going into all the do’s and don’ts of who said what, of where the money was coming from, and of whether it was cut from point A or from point B, the fact is that we need a relatively small amount of money to undertake those two vital reports, and they really need to be done. I hope that, when the Minister gets to her feet at the end of the debate, she will have some positive news for us. One cannot stress too much how important it is to have those two studies done.

Let me briefly mention the Peninsula Rail Task Force and the excellent work it has done. Its 20-year plan certainly bears reading and taking seriously, because it has a vision for the rail line that we in the south-west deserve.

As has been mentioned, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor came down to the south-west on a number of occasions. They came to my constituency—to Saunton in the case of the Chancellor—and announcements and promises were made and ambitions mentioned. They talked about investment for the south-west rail line. I feel sure that, when the rail Minister gets to her feet, she will be able to reassure us that those promises will be delivered. It is vital for all of us in north Devon and the wider south-west that we have a resilient, fast and efficient rail service.