North Wales Main Line

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2022 Westminster Hall

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Huw Merriman)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey, as it was to serve as your Parliamentary Private Secretary all those years ago—now look what has happened. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy (Robin Millar) for securing this important debate on the strategic importance of the north Wales main line, and for the passionate manner in which he made his case.

I thank my hon. Friends the Member for Clwyd South (Simon Baynes) and for Ynys Môn (Virginia Crosbie) for their contributions. I also thank the Under-Secretary of State for Wales, my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of Clwyd (Dr Davies), who is unable to speak due to his ministerial position but has been speaking to me and representing his constituents. I thank the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi), for whom I have always had a warm regard—I hope that continues, notwithstanding our various positions—for his kind welcome. I hope that we continue to work well.

In responding to the debate, I will speak first about Welsh investment and what is being done to invest in north Wales. I will then speak to the situation with Avanti. My hon. Friend the Member for Ynys Môn asked me to give some detail about that, and I hope that I can do so.

On Welsh investment, during the current railway investment control period, which covers 2019 to 2024, a record £2 billion will be spent in Wales by Network Rail. Of that, nearly £1.2 billion will be spent on renewing and upgrading the infrastructure to meet current and future needs. In addition, through the rail network enhancements pipeline, we continue to deliver ambitious enhancements to the rail network, investing in key priorities with an unrelenting focus on levelling up our nation and ensuring that all communities have the connections they need to support growth and prosperity.

By way of example, Network Rail is currently finalising an outline business case for upgrading the north Wales main line between Chester and Holyhead, and improving journey times between north Wales, the north-west of England and other major UK centres. We have this year delivered an upgrade to the digital signalling system on the Cambrian line, supporting the transformation of passenger experience and enabling the operation of state-of-the-art new trains. Those trains are currently undergoing testing and will soon be introduced on the line, as well as on other routes across Wales. We expect to be in a position to publish an update to RNEP, confirming the status of all enhancement schemes, very shortly.

My hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy has highlighted the findings of Sir Peter Hendy’s Union connectivity Review. The Government are grateful to Sir Peter for his work, and we are considering his 19 recommendations carefully. As Sir Peter has highlighted, in most cases his report does not contain new detailed infrastructure proposals. Instead, he points the way to further work, which should better identify where, when and what to invest in for the best results for people across the United Kingdom.

In anticipation of Sir Peter’s recommendations, the Government set aside further funding at spending review 2021 to add to the £20 million previously allocated to take forward some of this essential development work. The funding will set us on the right path to developing the best infrastructure development options to strengthen our main transport arteries for people and businesses across the UK.

We have been discussing Sir Peter’s recommendations and the opportunities for development funding with the devolved Administrations to identify the solutions that work best for the people of the UK. We are pleased that the Welsh Government agree with Sir Peter’s recommendations and we are discussing with them how we can best support his work.

My hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd South mentioned the impact of HS2 on north Wales. HS2 will free up capacity on the existing west coast main line and enable faster journey times from the rest of Great Britain to both north and south Wales via new interchange opportunities. Journey times from many places in north Wales to London could be reduced to about two hours and 15 minutes, changing at Crewe station.

Hon. Members have ably addressed the reduction in Avanti services. I share and recognise their frustration, but want to be clear about the reasons behind the reduction and the action the Government have taken to mitigate the effects on passengers where possible. It is long-standing practice for rail operators to use a degree of rest-day working to operate the normal timetable, to the mutual benefit of companies and staff. It gives companies a degree of flexibility to cover for things such as staff sicknesses and holidays, and it gives staff the opportunity to earn additional money should they wish.

Avanti, in common with many other companies in the rail sector and beyond, has experienced a range of difficulties in responding to the pandemic. Each rail operator is unique and the impacts fell differently across them all. In Avanti’s case, they included a higher than expected retirement rate, restrictions on training that required two people in a cab and a number of drivers who needed retraining when they returned from an extended period of shielding. Approximately 15% of Avanti’s driver workforce were unable to work for varying degrees of time during the pandemic due to being clinically extremely vulnerable and requiring partial or full retraining on returning to work. That contributed to a position where the company was relatively dependent on rest-day working, as has been pointed out.

None of that explanation is to exclude the operator’s responsibility to manage its operation effectively, but it is important that we hold it to account for what it is responsible for, and do not seek to hold it to account for matters outside its control. The Department is considering that carefully, under the terms of the contract.

On 30 July this year, Avanti experienced immediate and near-total cessation of drivers volunteering to work passenger trains on rest days. That left Avanti unable to operate its full timetable and facing a choice of whether to try, day by day, to run what it could, with the inevitable short-notice cancellations, or to reduce the timetable to a level operable without overtime.

That was a difficult and invidious choice, but I am sure that Members will appreciate that the impact of short-notice cancellations is particularly bad for passengers. It is not possible for passengers to plan around them as they do not know in advance what will be cancelled, so it leads to late journeys and overcrowded trains. While that is bad for anyone, it is particularly bad for passengers who may have booked assistance, be unable to stand or be travelling with children, for example.

The alternative—reducing the timetable—is also highly disruptive, and that case has been made, but it is honest with passengers and gives them a chance to try to make alternative plans. That approach has reduced cancellations of about 25% of the service in late July and early August to about 5% today.

Members in today’s debate have made the point that the impact on north Wales has been particularly severe because the majority of through trains to London have been replaced by a shuttle to Crewe. Avanti has sought to mitigate the situation by adding more stops at Crewe on its other services to improve the interchange, but I acknowledge the point and the particular impact the situation has had on passengers travelling to and from north Wales.

[Virginia Crosbie]

Will the Minister take me up on my offer of coming to Holyhead, having a panad and sitting down with the train drivers to hear at first hand about how their working practices impact them on a daily basis?

[Huw Merriman]

I assure my hon. Friend that I had not forgotten that ask—I will answer it now instead of later. I am keen in my new role to meet as many members of the rail workforce as I can, as far across the nation as I can. I will be delighted to join her in Holyhead, meet those drivers and have a look around her constituency to see the impact she has so ably described. I look forward to having a good, honest conversation with the drivers. I always worked well with the rail force in my previous role, and hope I can do so again in my current one.

Let me turn to service restoration plans. Nearly 100 drivers will have entered service with Avanti between April and December this year, comprising new recruits and those who have completed the required retraining. As they have become available to work, Avanti started to introduce additional services where they are most needed, and where train crew resources allow. So far, those have been focused on London to Birmingham and London to Manchester. Avanti plans a further increase in December, at the next major timetable change. That will see the majority of direct north Wales services restored, with five trains a day in each direction between Holyhead and London, which I know Members and their constituents will welcome.

I want to see Avanti’s plan to increase services succeed, so that passengers travelling to and from north Wales get the experience they deserve. My officials are holding weekly meetings with Avanti senior management, and are reviewing Avanti’s progress against the plan and handling of risks. They are reporting to the Secretary of State and to me as Rail Minister.

I have also met Steve Montgomery, who is managing director for rail at FirstGroup, the ultimate parent company. The Office of Rail and Road—the independent regulator—and Network Rail’s programme management office have both reviewed Avanti’s plans, and are content. I hope that independence gives hon. Members some reassurance.

It is important to be clear that many of these factors are not in Avanti’s control. Crucially, this improvement will require the support of the trade unions. It is important to modernise the railway to phase out old-fashioned ways of working, improve people’s journeys, help make trains more reliable and create savings that can provide funding towards a pay rise for staff.

Finally, I turn to the contract that Avanti has with the Department, which I know has been a matter of interest for many across the House. On 7 October, the Department entered into a short-term extension of six months to 1 April 2023. That short-term extension will allow the Avanti side of the business to roll out its recovery plan. The Department will consider Avanti’s performance, while officials finalise a national rail contract for consideration.

I conclude by thanking you, Ms McVey, and all hon. Members. I hope they have been reassured by the updates I have been able to give them. I look forward to working with all my colleagues across the House and in north Wales, so that we can give them the rail services they need.