Rail Ticket Offices

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Thursday 6th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Louise Haigh (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State if he will make a statement on plans to close rail ticket offices.

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

I am answering the urgent question on behalf of the Secretary of State, who is currently involved in this process, so it is appropriate for me to respond.

There has been a huge shift in the way in which passengers purchase tickets at railway stations, with about one in every 10 transactions taking place in ticket offices in 2022-23. That is down from one in three a decade earlier and equates to 13% of rail revenue. Despite this, our stations have hardly changed in the past 10 years, which means that staff are constrained to work in ticket offices, although they could serve passengers better on station platforms and concourses. I am pleased that the rail industry has launched consultations on the future of ticket offices under the ticketing and settlement agreement process, which will give the public an opportunity to scrutinise the train operating companies’ proposals to ensure that they work in the best possible way for passengers.

These changes are about modernising the passenger experience by moving staff out of ticket offices to be more visible and accessible around the station. Crucially, no currently staffed stations will be unstaffed as a result of this reform—staff will still be there to provide assistance and additional support for those who need and want it—and the new approach will take into consideration the potential impact on individuals with protected characteristics. It is of course vital that our railway is accessible to all and I have engaged directly with accessibility groups and will continue to do so.

This is an industry process, so I encourage Members and their constituents to engage with their local train operators to find out more about the proposals for their local stations. If passengers want to raise any views, they can contact the relevant passenger body. I believe that the industry’s proposed reforms could enable staff to provide a more flexible, agile and personal service, creating the modern experience that people expect.

[Louise Haigh]

Yesterday, the Rail Delivery Group confirmed plans to close hundreds of rail ticket offices across the country but, this morning, as is usual when difficult decisions are made, the Secretary of State was nowhere to be seen. This announcement, driven every inch of the way by his Department—not the industry, as the Minister claimed—has caused huge anxiety to vulnerable and disabled passengers and rail staff up and down the country; and how long have people been given to respond to these hugely consequential plans? Just 21 days. This is a massive change to the network, affecting more than 150 million rail journeys a year and hitting elderly and disabled passengers the hardest, and they have been given only three weeks to have their say. Why does the Minister not just admit that this consultation has nothing to do with taking on board their concerns? It is a rubber stamp for a decision that he has already made, with the most vulnerable cut out altogether.

Can the Minister give any reassurance to vulnerable passengers who rely on staff in railway stations to help them to purchase tickets and board trains? Why has he not published equality impact assessments alongside these consultations? Given that he claims the solution is modernisation and digital ticketing, does he know how many stations do not currently have tap-in or barcode capability? What assessment has he made of the impact on revenue for our rail industry? Will he admit that this process is merely a prelude to job losses that will mean far fewer staff to serve the travelling public, and the continued managed decline of our railways?

We know what this is really about. It is not about reforming our railways; the Government have already ditched plans for Great British Railways. It is not about modernisation; the Department has already confirmed that the contactless ticketing roll-out is limited to London and the south-east. This is about one thing and one thing only: the Conservatives crashed the economy and now they are asking for more self-defeating cuts on our declining railways.

On the Minister’s watch, our rail services are already being run into the ground, with cancellations at record highs, basic services such as wi-fi being taken away and legislation to reform the network on the scrapheap. Will he simply acknowledge that the Conservatives cannot fix the railways because they broke them in the first place?

[Huw Merriman]

Let me give a little more detail on the Secretary of State’s role in the ticketing and settlement agreement, which has been in place not just under Conservative Administrations, but under the last Labour Administration. The Secretary of State is required to make a determination where the train operators and the passenger groups cannot reach an agreement. That makes it entirely right for him not to be here to respond to the urgent question.

The hon. Lady mentioned job losses. First and foremost, this is all about taking expert ticketing staff into the parts of the station where currently they are not seen. If only 10% of tickets are sold across the ticket counter, crudely, that means that 90% of passengers are not accessing that member of staff. The idea is to take the member of staff on to the platform to help passengers to purchase tickets via a ticketing machine or online. Ninety-nine per cent of tickets can be purchased in that manner, so there is no reason why this will not be an improvement.

In the event that there are some staff who do not wish to make the transition, of course, the train operators will need to look at that. The sad reality is that there is an offer on the table that would guarantee no compulsory redundancies up to December 2024, but the union leaders refused to put that offer to their members. If there is any concern about the impact on jobs, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and those it backs financially might wish to take some responsibility for that.

The hon. Lady talked about pay-as-you-go being rolled out only to the south-east. The devolution deals that have been announced will enable the roll-out of pilots by the Mayors of the West Midlands and Manchester by the end of this year. She also talked about wi-fi being taken away, but that is not the case either. We are looking for each train operator to do research to show how much the wi-fi is used, how helpful it is and what more can be done.

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[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

The Transport Committee is conducting an inquiry into accessible transport. We have received alarming evidence that the quality and range of assistance to vulnerable passengers has declined markedly since the pandemic. If the redeployment of staff is to be meaningful, it is essential that the new roles and training are designed with the support of campaign groups for vulnerable people. Will my hon. Friend assure me that that will happen?

[Huw Merriman]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. The very first discussions I had with any groups about these changes were with those groups that represent passengers with accessibility and mobility issues on the railway. I told them that I am keen to work with them to help to ensure that these proposals are designed such that they work for each group with different characteristics. I will be looking to meet them again to ensure that that occurs.

At 9.30 am, the Office of Rail and Road issued its rail passenger assistance bookings update for the latest year, which shows that passenger assists increased by 68% compared with the previous year. That demonstrates that more help is needed at stations for people with accessibility needs. Again, by freeing people who are currently under-utilised in the ticket office and putting them on to the platforms to give help and guidance, we will help those who need it the most. That is at the forefront of everything that the train operators are looking to do with these proposals.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

In May 2021, there was a partial collapse at Northwich station—it was the ticket office. It is being rebuilt as we speak and there is an investigation into the collapse. I am now told by the Minister and the Secretary of State that it is incredibly likely—it seems a foregone conclusion—that the ticket office will never reopen. Disabled and elderly people already struggle accessing the station, but they will struggle even more without staff. This is a folly. The Minister needs to think again.

[Huw Merriman]

It is not the ticket office but the expert people in it who assist passengers. With these proposals, the train operators are looking to free up people from behind the glass, often in parts of the station that passengers do not access, to help them to use their skills to get tickets sold at ticket machines and to advise people on how to purchase online, so they can do that in future, and thereafter to help them with the entire passenger journey experience, giving them information and making them feel more reassured.

These roll-outs have occurred across other parts of the network. London Underground did this some years ago, and I do not believe the current Labour Mayor of London has any plans to turn it round because it actually works. It gives a better passenger experience. People can either live in the past or look towards the future. The way in which passengers transact across a whole range of services is exactly the same, and we are keen to see the railways modernise and thrive.

[Greg Smith (Buckingham) (Con)]

Many of my constituents write to me about overcrowding, on an almost daily basis, particularly on Chiltern Railways. No one has ever written to me about ticket office provision. Sympathetic as I am to the argument for ensuring staff come out from behind the counter to assist people directly on platforms and around the station, how will this solve the demands of passengers, which we are probably all seeing in our inboxes on a day-to-day basis, in relation to rush-hour capacity and weekend capacity?

[Huw Merriman]

Chiltern Railways, for example, is looking to expand coverage at High Wycombe. By redeploying staff, it can get more staff on to the platforms. This is an example of where my hon. Friend’s passengers will benefit because train operators can flex staff to provide more coverage, which makes people feel more reassured. Again, as hon. and right hon. Members look at the details and engage with the consultation, they may find their constituents are getting a wider range of services over a wider range of hours than they currently receive.

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

As a booking and ticket clerk on the underground back in the 1970s, trust me: I know ticketing is now easier. I still use the buses and the underground every day, so I am familiar with the scenes at stations in the mornings and evenings. However, more screens and more opportunities for things to go wrong are not the answer to every problem. Does the Minister know how many ticket machines fail every day? These machines will make it harder, not easier, to buy tickets. It will be harder, not easier, to secure refunds. It will be harder, not easier, to apply for rail cards. Who uses booking office clerks? Disabled people, the elderly and people with language problems or difficulty understanding how to use the ticket machine. Will he give the green light for the RDG to change track and scrap this train wreck of a proposal?

[Huw Merriman]

There are 979 regulated, operated stations, but 43% of all stations currently do not have any ticket office facility at all, and people are still able to use those stations to access trains. Ninety-nine per cent of transactions can be completed either online or via a machine. In the event that a machine is not working and there are no staff—a lot of stations, like my own, are staffed for only half the day—a ticket to ride can be acquired and then a ticket can be purchased at the end of a journey. Again, these processes are already in place for those stations with no ticket office. We have those blocks to build on.

[Mr Speaker]

I do not think the Minister should plug The Beatles in that way.

[Jack Brereton (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Con)]

Many people using stations such as Stoke-on-Trent station are infrequent travellers, and many are vulnerable or elderly and need support to buy a ticket. Can the Minister assure me that there will always be someone at Stoke-on-Trent station to provide a paper ticket to those without digital skills?

[Huw Merriman]

There are no plans to replace paper tickets through the train operators’ process. Again, the aim is to ensure that ticket office staff are freed up and on the platform to sell the tickets and help passengers to purchase them at the machines or online. The hope is that, thereafter, those passengers will be able to book for themselves with confidence, without needing to use that service. Those staff will also be available at Stoke-on-Trent to provide other services and information: more customer services. This is the exact way in which our rail passengers transact across the retail and financial space, which is why it is the right approach for the railways.

[Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Lab)]

My constituents who use Cross Gates station and people across the country will be worried about this proposal, because closing ticket offices is yet another example of private profit being put before the public good in our railways. This move is really about gutting railways of station staff, who have a big impact on passenger accessibility and safety, especially for older and disabled people. Does the Minister really believe that this will make the railways more welcoming for people—or does that not matter?

[Huw Merriman]

If we like seeing station staff when we access our journey and like the fact that we will be seeing more of them because they will be freed up, then I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman. Rather than gutting the railways, this Government, and indeed the taxpayer, have provided £41 billion of support since the pandemic. That does not sound like gutting the railways to me. I truly believe that we will end up with a better station experience, one that better reflects modern usage, which is why we are happy to support the train operators with these proposals. As I say, 10% of transactions are purchased across the ticket office counter—10 years ago, it was one in three. The railway is adapting to the manner in which consumers have changed their habits.

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

Disabled, elderly and other vulnerable passengers have been troubled by today’s announcements, but does the Minister share my weary exasperation at the fact that people do not understand that the best way to help disabled and elderly passengers is for staff to come out from behind their screens to assist them in using a ticket machine, to help them on and off trains, and to help them to move around the station? Does he agree that for more than a decade Ministers have sought to improve services for passengers on the stations but have been blocked at every turn? Does he not see an opportunity to improve accessibility on our rail network here? It should be welcomed, not rejected.

[Huw Merriman]

My hon. Friend speaks with experience, having done this role himself, and he is absolutely right in what he says. I find it patronising to be told constantly that those who have disabilities or those who are elderly cannot access things online and cannot do this. That is not the case at all. At the moment, we do not have enough products online, and, as part of this process, I have been pushing to ensure that we have more online. It will mean that people do not have to go to the station beforehand to pick up a travelcard because they need a photo that they have to take. The idea is that this move should make things better for those who have accessibility and mobility challenges, not just in putting more tickets online and into a place where they can buy them from the comfort of their own home and phone, but in making sure they have more help at the station. So I thank him for the points he makes; he speaks with expertise.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

The Government have overseen the largest increase in rail fees. My constituents must deal with frequent delays and cancellations, and now people in Bath and across Somerset face losing their ticket offices. Bath is a world heritage site that has a large number of visitors. Foreign visitors, in particular, find getting through apps and ticketing machines bewildering; they depend on the ticket offices. It more important than ever now to attract people on to public transport, so will the Minister explain why my constituents, and the many visitors to Bath who would otherwise come by coach, should feel confident that train journeys will be more reliable, cheaper and more attractive than driving?

[Huw Merriman]

It is because we want to give that better customer experience, so that more passengers are seeing more staff at the stations to help them with information, make them feel more secure and welcome, help them purchase a ticket, and do so in a manner where those passengers are used to transacting across the space. I very much hope the hon. Lady will see a better staff experience as a result and therefore even more people will be attracted on to rail.

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is a good Minister and a good friend, but I think even he knows he has a tough gig this morning. To use his Beatles analogy, can he not just let it be? I queue up at my ticket office every Monday morning. There is always a queue of people wanting route advice, people with disabilities who cannot use the machines and people wanting refunds. I have to queue because I have an open flexible ticket, as many Members do, that I cannot get from the machine. Will roving members of staff be subject to statutory regulation? At the moment, ticket office staff are the only staff subject to statutory regulation, so I might not even be able to find a roving member of staff to take me to the machine, to request a ticket that the machine will not give me. It is not going to work, is it?

[Huw Merriman]

The Beatles analogy rather flew past me, I am afraid. Let me repeat the statistic to my hon. Friend: 99% of all tickets can be purchased from a ticket machine or online. In terms of the 1% we need to work on, I have asked the industry and officials to speed up the process, so that more tickets can be purchased in that manner and ticket machines can be changed so that that can occur. I seek to work with my hon. Friend to convince him that that is the right approach.

As the former Chair of the Transport Committee and having spent all my time on transport since I became a Member, I would not be making this statement if I did not believe this was the right thing for the railway and for passengers. That matters to me hugely. I am not a stooge; I do this because I think this is the right thing to do, it will create a better passenger experience and it guarantees our future in rail.

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

The Minister spoke of modernising passengers’ experience of railways. Having visited, he will know that Luton station is not fit for purpose and that the ticket office is integral to the upper level walk-through from the town centre to High Town. Any closure of the ticket office will pose risks to the security and safety of staff and passengers. Crucially, can the Minister assure me that the proposed closure of ticket offices will not be used as a reason to delay, decrease or halt refurbishment of stations that are in need of renovation in the future, such as Luton station?

[Huw Merriman]

I have stood at the Dispatch Box and assured the hon. Lady that the maintenance improvements for Luton station will start in August and will be delivered by the beginning of next year. I can give her that assurance. This programme is completely separate and does not have any knock-on effects regarding the Access for All programme, through which 400 stations will have been given step-free access by next year.

As part of the process for the programme, passengers will have a three-week period during which they can provide their views on individual stations, so they can give their views on Luton station. There will then be a 35-day period during which passenger groups will assess what they have seen, and they can work with train operators on issues with which they are uncomfortable, perhaps for reasons of meeting accessibility needs. Finally, the Secretary of State will determine matters, if the two parties cannot agree. So there is a process in place to ensure that every station meets its requirements, which they must do from an accessibility perspective. None of that changes through this mechanism.

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

Ten per cent of ticket sales is still an awful lot of ticket sales. In this process, I hope that people who choose or need to buy their tickets from a ticket office will not suffer from the tyranny of the majority who choose not to, and that their interests will be properly protected throughout. Will the Minister assure me that those people who want to pay for their tickets using cash will still be able to do so? To me, banning people from using cash to buy tickets would be completely unacceptable.

[Huw Merriman]

I think I see the Beatles analogy, because there is a ticket to ride process—[Interruption.] Okay, that was it. That process is available to anybody who wishes to pay cash. For example, if my hon. Friend looks at the Northern Trains website, he will see that there is a whole feature explaining how cash can still be used. The machines should take cash. In the event that they do not, there is a process for passengers to purchase a ticket on the train without fear of a penalty. So yes, cash can still be used in the machines.

[Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab)]

The Minister is clearly on Southeastern time. That is why he was late getting the analogy. He said that just 10% of tickets are sold over the counter, but that does not explain who are using the ticket offices and what alternative arrangements he is going to make for them. Southeastern has announced 40 ticket office closures, 35 of which are in south-east London—that is 35 in south-east London. That is an outrage. One in my constituency has closed, but all the ones around my constituency are closing as well. What will he do to ensure that these people not only keep their jobs once they are moved out from behind the glass, but are not moved from being redeployed to redundancy? And what will he do about the 10% who rely on ticket offices?

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[Huw Merriman]

I say respectfully to the hon. Member that Southeastern has had its best performance in six years. He stood in this place in January rightly saying that changes in the December timetable had led to higher cancellation rates. Those rates have gone down from 13% to 1.6%. Southeastern was one of the best operators in terms of performance. That was all down to the staff, but never has he stood up to thank the staff for turning things around and working so hard. He should not think they are his friends when they have to listen to him going on and giving misinformation about the situation. He has also got Southeastern’s consultation wrong. Southeastern is doing its part in stages. The first part is on the Metro, so it is London TravelWatch that will deal with the responses. It will then roll out the changes to the rest of the network. He knows that, because it was on an email sent to him.

[Sir Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con)]

I pay tribute to and thank people such as Vinnie at Chislehurst station who was actually very busy when I came through this morning to get my rather late running Southeastern train—but we will leave that on one side. Does the Minister accept that 21 days is a very short period for such an important consultation? Secondly, one of the stations named—Sundridge Park—does not have step-free access to both platforms. It is staff currently in the ticket office who help people get on the trains: they put up the ramps and help passengers to negotiate the steps. Will he give an undertaking that no staff will be removed until cast iron arrangements are in place for somebody to be in attendance on those stations to assist people throughout all the hours that a station is operating?

[Huw Merriman]

The changes mean that some staff may be best deployed on the platforms, because that is where they are seeing most of the passengers and some of them need their help. There may be other situations where it makes more sense for that member of staff to be near where they are currently positioned because of the design of the station. The idea is that each station is looked at, so that when a member of the public decides to fill in the consultation, they will get a dropdown, which will locate the station in which they are interested and then they can provide their comments. The passenger groups will then look to see whether what is proposed will work. If it does not, that is a different matter. I can give my hon. Friend the assurance that the train operators and the passenger groups will make their determinations on a case-by-case basis. Where things do not make sense, those changes will not just be put through to make for a worse experience.

[Afzal Khan (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)]

The announced closure of 45 railway ticket offices across Greater Manchester, including at Levenshulme and Gorton stations, will be to the detriment of my constituents who depend on them. Just when we should be encouraging travel by rail to reduce our carbon footprint, this measure will push people away from our great British railways. We should be trying to make train travel easier, cheaper and more accessible, so why are the Government acting against the interests of the public?

[Huw Merriman]

I re-emphasise that the aim of these measures is to redeploy staff who are currently underutilised and who are not seeing the passengers that they used to because passenger habits have changed. Those staff will be freed up to work in other areas where they can not only sell the ticket to the passenger, but also help them with information and cater for any particular accessibility needs on the platform. This is all about making for a better passenger experience. All I can say to the hon. Member is that he has the consultation and he should complete it. He will find that things such as this happen in all walks of life and in train stations as well. Manchester has looked at using ticketless travel. Tyne & Wear Metro has just done this and London Underground has done it for years. It actually works and it gives a better passenger experience and that is what I am determined to see the train operators deliver through this change.

[Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)]

I have huge concerns about these plans. As the Minister knows, my hard-pressed constituents trying to get to work, college or university from Marsden or Slaithwaite stations and transiting through Huddersfield still face huge disruption on the TransPennine route. When the computer says no, does he not agree that the best way for them to get advice on ticketing, refunds, alternative routes and when the next train is coming is by speaking to fully trained staff in ticket offices?

[Huw Merriman]

If I give my station as an example, we have one member of staff, who is in a ticket office. Most people already have their tickets, for the reasons I have given; only one in 10 buy them from the ticket office. They access the platform through a gate and do not see any members of staff. If there are delays and problems, it is better for passengers to be alongside the member of staff on the platform to get that information, rather than trying to find them behind glass.

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

There is a problem with the Minister’s point about looking to the future. Back in 2021, Transport for the North, of which I was a board member at the time, was forced to abandon its integrated smart ticketing programme after the Government pulled the funding. I am sure the Minister will remember that from his time on the Select Committee. That work would have helped to digitise transport and create multi-modal, multi-operator pay-as-you-go travel on rail, light rail and bus. We thought it was a deeply flawed decision at the time, and recent events have shown that to be the case. Will he work with TfN and others to see whether any of that work can be reinstated?

[Huw Merriman]

I have the greatest respect for the hon. Member and I will certainly look at what more can be done. We are keen to roll out more pay-as-you-go. There will be 400 stations by the end of the year that will have pay-as-you-go in place, where people can tap in and out. That tends to be the future, as we see with London Underground. Those pilots are in place for the end of the year in the west midlands and Manchester. I recognise that does not cover the area he mentions, and I am happy to work with him to see what more can be done.

Coming back to London Underground, this system has been in place for some years. London Underground does not have staff behind ticket office counters, and I believe it works well. It has freed those staff to come out into the station area as a whole, where they can give much better advice and understanding to passengers. It works really well, and that is why, I believe, no Labour Mayor has asked for it to be reinstated.

[Sir Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

Residents in Swindon had a taste of things to come yesterday, when the ticket office was closed and people were queueing out of the door to use the wholly inadequate machines at the station. The wi-fi was unreliable as well. If we are to proceed with this significant change, the technology available to customers must be significantly better and we need to avoid a situation where elderly customers who come to pick up an advance ticket have nobody to help them. Will the Minister do everything he can, working with the rail authorities, to ensure that residents do not face—to quote the Beatles again—a “Magical Mystery Tour” when they come to Swindon station?

[Huw Merriman]

I will certainly do so, with my right hon. and learned Friend, and I will share a bit of experience that led me to want more in this direction. I need to get a weekly travel card, but I could not get it online because it was not available. I went to the station but did not have a photo with me. I asked, “Why is it the case that we still need a photo when that weekly travel card is less than an Avanti single?” I was told, “That’s the way it has been on the railway for 40 years. That’s why we do it.” That is not good enough. I have mobility, so I can walk up to Charing Cross to make that transaction —or not make it—and then leave, but for others who do not, it does not work for them at all. I can give him the assurance that alongside this programme is a strong exercise to make all products accessible from machines and online; 99% are already accessible, but we need to get the full suite of products so that people do not have to queue in the manner he has just described.

[Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian) (Alba)]

Although these station office closures are in England, they have implications for Scottish passengers. Many in my constituency, myself included—never mind those in the Borders and elsewhere in southern Scotland—access services through stations in northern England, in Berwick and elsewhere. That is not just a matter of choice, but often a matter of necessity; it is required because of the pan-UK services timetabling from LNER, TPE or CrossCountry, all of which are signed off by the DFT. What discussions are taking place with the Scottish Government or with Scottish passenger representatives to ensure that the rights of those north of the border who are impacted by this change will be protected?

[Huw Merriman]

I will be looking to speak to the Scottish Executive. In Scotland, similar proposals have, as I understand it, been rolled out to a number of ticket stations by ScotRail. I want to assess whether that was a mandate from the Executive. I will certainly be having a chat with them to see what lessons can be learned, given that Scotland appears to have gone before England in that regard.

[Mr Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)]

May I take this opportunity to welcome the extension of contactless payments to Berkhamsted and Tring in South West Hertfordshire? I declare an interest as a local commuter from one of those stations. Although this initiative on rail ticket offices will, in my eyes, help more travellers, can my hon. Friend reassure the House that additional support will remain for those who require help, such as the elderly and the disabled?

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[Huw Merriman]

Yes, I can. I thank my hon. Friend for his points. I know that he has busy stations and will want to ensure that his constituents are looked after. The very first meeting that I had when we were looking at the train operators’ proposals was with disability and access groups and age concern groups. I wanted to work with them—I still do—to find out what individual characteristics of the design may work for some but not for others. I can give him the assurance that we will continue to support those who have the greatest vulnerabilities. I firmly believe that taking people out from behind glass and putting them into areas where they can be best accessed will mean that they will be able to give passengers the greatest help, making for a better rail experience.

[Ian Mearns (Gateshead) (Lab)]

The Minister says that he has engaged with relevant disabled people’s organisations, but there has been widespread opposition to ticket office closures from such organisations, including Disability Rights UK, the National Federation of the Blind, Transport for All, Royal National Institute of Blind People, Royal National Institute for Deaf People, Guide Dogs and Scope. The Minister thinks that taking expert staff out of station ticket offices and putting them on the platform will help people, but how will people know which member of staff to go to for the help they need? A ticket office means that people know where to go to get that help. If those staff are to be redeployed, there will not be a single redundancy, will there, Minister? I have a funny feeling that these proposals will go down not like a yellow submarine but like a lead balloon.

[Huw Merriman]

I have stated the position with regard to redundancies. A deal is on the table but the RMT will not give it to its members to make a determination. It included a commitment to no compulsory redundancies until December 2024. It is for the RMT to decide whether it wishes to get that protection in place. I will say the same thing to the hon. Member that I have said previously: I have worked with those groups; they were the first I met and are at the forefront of my mind in ensuring that this works. From a passenger perspective, if they want to reach out to a member of staff for any reason, they will do so, and members of staff will—because they are great members of staff—signpost them to somebody else. All members of staff must have the requisite training, and they do. I have great faith in our railway workforce to continue looking after passengers. I believe that these changes will bring more benefits in that regard.

[Peter Gibson (Darlington) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for meeting me yesterday to discuss the proposed closure of Darlington’s booking office. I also met David Horne yesterday afternoon to discuss that issue. I remain deeply concerned that our mainline station, which is currently receiving £139 million of expansion investment, will be left without a booking office. The elderly, disabled and vulnerable rely on help from our ticket offices, and if a station has barriers, that help needs to be in front of those barriers, not behind them. Ticket machines and apps have cut-off times, making purchases impossible in the minutes running up to a train leaving. Will my hon. Friend look into that problem? Will he assure the House that there is proper consultation, and that some ticket offices can be saved? Will he make it clear that representations can be made by letter and not just by email?

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[Huw Merriman]

Yes; the way in which the ticketing and settlement agreement process works means that anyone can access it online, but they can also write. Details will be available at stations, and indeed online, explaining how people can write through to make their points about their stations.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for meeting me and for doing so in a constructive manner whereby he was able to give me examples of his concerns, including tickets not being available within 15 minutes of travel. I have taken that point away because it forms part of the catalogue of changes that I want to see—the remaining 1% of tickets that cannot be purchased for that reason should be reduced towards 0%. I invite all right hon. and hon. Members who can give other examples to get in contact with me as well, because I will take those problems away and look at getting them fixed.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

The hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) was right: sometimes it is just too complicated to purchase a ticket without using a ticket office. I recently had that experience, and buying my ticket from the ticket office was £50 cheaper than if I had purchased it from the machine. I am afraid that the Beatles analogy he started is right: he’s got a ticket to ride, and he don’t care.

[Huw Merriman]

I was not even aware that I had started a Beatles analogy. Actually, this is more important than joking about music; this is about reassuring passengers that we can deliver a better experience but also an experience that they are very familiar with, in terms of the other transactions they make across the retail space. More and more people are doing that online, and they start doing it online by being taught how to do it. The idea is that ticketing staff who are currently behind glass, not seeing those passengers, will help to deliver that and ensure that those passengers have a better experience and do not need to queue up next time, because they can do it in a seamless manner. Where that operation does not exist because of the machine, we are looking to upgrade. I will take any examples he has, to ensure that passengers get the best price but can do it online or via a machine.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Staff at Kettering railway station are superb; they are friendly, polite, efficient and dedicated to simply outstanding customer service. Given that Kettering is one of the stations potentially affected, will the Rail Minister encourage rail passengers in Kettering to take part in the public consultation promoted by East Midlands Railway? Can he confirm that if the changes go through, a passenger who turns up at Kettering railway station with cash to buy a ticket will be able to do so?

[Huw Merriman]

Yes, I can give my hon. Friend the assurance that cash purchases would remain across the network. If there is a machine that is not working for cash, passengers can enter the train, safe in the knowledge that they can then purchase their ticket on the train or at the end of their journey. There are a number of stations that are not part of the current consultation, and they will tend to be the end point where passengers will find a busier station. I can absolutely give him that assurance.

My hon. Friend mentioned the staff. We are looking at the ticket office as a place that people are not accessing any more, but the ticketing staff are brilliant. All we want to do is utilise them more, so that they can see more people and use their expertise. Passengers want their ticket office staff to be more accessible, so that they can gain that expertise, and that is exactly why we want to put them in the places where the passengers are.

[Dame Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

I am a bit worried. The Minister keeps saying that staff are not utilised and that people are not accessing ticket offices. I can tell him that in Hull last year, nearly 180,000 tickets were sold from the ticket office—that is one ticket every 1.6 minutes. We have gone through years of bad management with TransPennine at Hull Paragon station. This looks like another downgrading of facilities for passengers. We have heard about the effect it will have on the elderly, the disabled and the vulnerable. Can the Minister just for once put the travelling public first?

[Huw Merriman]

I am putting the travelling public first when I make these points. What the right hon. Lady and others cannot deny, despite saying it cannot be believed, is that 10 years ago one in three tickets was sold across the ticket office counter, because people were not purchasing as much online or through machines. Now it is 10%. That demonstrates that ticket office staff are not being utilised fully. We want to utilise them in a better manner. Redeploying staff where they are not as busy as they were and could be better utilised and have a more rewarding job is what happens across the retail sector. The railways should be no different.

[Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)]

Anyone who has experienced the long queues from the machines and the ticket office at my local train station of Leigh-on-Sea—sometimes it goes out of the office and around the block—on a Monday morning, and sometimes on a Saturday, will know why I have been campaigning for contactless ticketing to be extended to Leigh-on-Sea and Chalkwell stations ever since I arrived in this place. As such, I am personally delighted; however, innovation must never be used as an excuse to exclude any of my constituents or deliver a worse service. The blind and partially sighted, such as the wonderful Jill Allen-King OBE, cannot access the touchscreen ticket machines and need a person to help them buy that ticket, but that person does not need to be behind glass. Can the Minister assure me that there will always be somebody available at Leigh-on-Sea and Chalkwell ticket stations to help the blind and partially sighted, the elderly, and anyone else who needs help?

[Huw Merriman]

Yes—any currently staffed station will not become unstaffed as a result of these changes. As I have said, 43% of stations do not have ticket office staff, but if the stations that my hon. Friend has mentioned are currently staffed, they will not become unstaffed.

My hon. Friend referenced guide dogs. I am very grateful for the meeting I had with the Guide Dogs team, because we know that when it comes to mobility and accessibility issues, what may work for some does not work for everyone. Sight loss is a particular example of that, so I am very keen to continue to work with Guide Dogs to reassure my hon. Friend’s constituents that they will always get the help they need at her local stations.

[Navendu Mishra (Stockport) (Lab)]

I have several rail ticket offices in my constituency: Stockport, Heaton Chapel and Brinnington. The Minister will know, because I have raised it with him frequently, that Heaton Chapel and Brinnington do not have disabled access, so I am not convinced by the notion that this Government are looking to deliver more for passengers, and I do not think my constituents are convinced either. The ticket offices at all three of those stations—Stockport, Brinnington and Heaton Chapel—seem to be earmarked for closure, and the people who work in those ticket offices will be worried. Some 240,000 people work on the railway; they will be worried that the Government are running the industry into the ground, so I urge the Minister to rethink this proposal. Twenty-one days is an absolutely outrageous period of time for a consultation.

[Huw Merriman]

Again, I point to the accessibility stats. There was a 68% increase in the number of passengers who needed assistance at stations, so it surely makes sense to free up people who are working behind glass and are unable to provide that assistance—people who may not be as utilised, because fewer passengers are purchasing tickets in that manner. Those people can then go and assist the passengers who need that help the most, which is at the forefront of these changes.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

I very much welcome the announcement that Gillingham and Rainham ticket offices will be kept open, and I pay tribute to the fantastic staff in Gillingham and Rainham. Across the board, constituents have raised with me the needs of an ageing population and the elderly. I accept the need for innovation and adaption, but whether it is banking or seeking repeat prescriptions, services are going online, and the elderly are finding it difficult to access face-to-face services. Regarding transport and getting advice and support at public train stations, can the Minister please ensure that face-to-face provision is always available for our elderly residents?

[Huw Merriman]

Yes. I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I hope that these changes will lead to more face-to-face interaction, because those who work on the railway and provide such brilliant help, information and reassurance for passengers will be more likely to be in the places where those passengers are located. Southeastern is doing its consultation in stages—the current part is for the metro side of Southeastern, after which it will be rolled out further—but I can give my hon. Friend that assurance.

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

My constituents and I are getting a bit fed up of everything being pushed online, because as we have heard today, it does not work for everyone. However, I want to ask the Minister what he is going to do to help operators deal with this change. Merseyrail, for example, does not accept tickets on phones, and there have been plenty of examples of people who bought through tickets online being fined because they have not been able to produce a physical ticket. Is the Minister going to do an assessment of operators’ capacity to deal with this issue and give them some financial support to make that change?

--- Later in debate ---

[Huw Merriman]

We will certainly be working with the train operators to ensure that passengers are not inconvenienced. As I mentioned, 43% of stations do not have ticket offices right now, and people still purchase their tickets and get on board. However, if members of the public are not able to purchase a ticket for whatever reason, including in stations that do not have a ticket office—perhaps because the machine is not operating—there will be a means to ensure that they are not inconvenienced. Obviously, the changes could be rolled out further, so I will make sure that train operators are fully geared towards that end, and that passengers are not inconvenienced in the manner that the hon. Gentleman has described. I give him that assurance.

[Robbie Moore (Keighley) (Con)]

Of course, it is always healthy to carry out a review to make positive change, but I have to say that I am deeply concerned to hear that Northern is considering closing the ticket offices in Keighley and Ilkley. I am yet to be convinced that these changes will have a positive impact on disabled passengers, elderly passengers, those with accessibility issues and of course those who want to carry out more complex transactions. One in six people carry out such transactions at those two stations—higher than the national average. Will the Minister meet me so that I can express my concerns, but will he also reiterate to the House that this is a consultation and that there is no done deal, and urge people to comment and give their views to the consultation?

[Huw Merriman]

I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. I would certainly be delighted to meet him and any other hon. and right hon. Members who wish to meet me to discuss this issue. Again, let me set out the process, which has been triggered by the train operators setting out their plans. There is a period of time— 21 days—for members of the public to respond. There is then a 35-day period for the transport groups, London TravelWatch and Transport Focus, to assess what is being said at each station. If they are not convinced, they will work with the train operator, and if that mechanism cannot reach an agreement on these matters, it will go to its ultimate stage, which is with the Secretary of State.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

Many Members have mentioned the impact on those with accessibility problems, and I would urge the Minister to take that into account. For my constituents in Edinburgh West, the closures announced by LNER, CrossCountry, Avanti West Coast and TransPennine all affect stations on the main line route. Can the Minister tell us how he is going to address the perception, which is growing, that people are not being encouraged on to public transport, and that accessibility to the south of the United Kingdom from Scotland, particularly from Edinburgh, is being undermined?

[Huw Merriman]

As part of this process, a number of stations will not be included. They tend to be bigger hub stations, as we call them, so Edinburgh is not included in that regard. I may be in danger of repeating myself, but the reason I sat down on the very first day this came up with those who represent disability and accessibility groups is that I was concerned they would feel that such a change may not be a positive for them. I wanted to work with them to understand how we can make this change positive, and how we can deploy more staff into the spaces where they will be able to access them more than they can right now. I continue to work with those groups, and I give the hon. Member the assurance that that process will remain. Of course, after the consultation and at the end point, all the current accessibility requirements will have to be met under these proposals, as they are under the existing set-up.

[Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne) (Con)]

First, I absolutely understand and respect what my hon. Friend and next-door neighbour is looking to achieve through these innovations, but he will not be surprised that I have already had a deluge of concerned constituents get in touch who are feeling that they are being designed out and are set to be disenfranchised. This follows hard on the change to car parking at the station, which now requires a specific app.

I have already had assurance from Southern that there will be assistance for passengers at Eastbourne from the first train to the last train. Under the proposed changes, there are longer ticket assistance hours than ticket office hours, so at face value this may represent an improvement and an extension of support. However, I can only imagine the complex and quite convoluted conversations at ticket machines that will have to take place about journey planning, and the long line of other passengers waiting to access a service with which they are super-fluent. The consultation is for 21 days, which is a very short period of time. I intend to make a significant contribution to that on behalf of the very many people who will not know how or will not feel empowered to do so. Will the Minister encourage operators to accept that?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Can I just say that it might be worth putting in for an Adjournment debate? The question must be shorter.

[Huw Merriman]

I can give my hon. Friend and neighbour that assurance. Again, I would encourage hon. Members to look at the train operators in their area to see what the plans would mean. A number of train operators have decided to take a number of people from behind the glass counters, who are all working the same hours, and flex their hours—they have the ability to do so—which means there will be wider coverage over the day. One plan I was particularly interested to see was with late-night coverage where there is no such coverage at the moment; these changes will actually provide that coverage. It is coverage not just to sell a ticket on the platform and provide help and guidance, but to provide safety reassurance, an information point and the greeting that people want if they are to be able to use their railway. That is why I am a passionate advocate of these changes, and I believe they will make for a better experience for the passenger over a longer period of the day.

[Abena Oppong-Asare (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab)]

The Minister may remember our meeting on 1 December with Southeastern. In that meeting, I asked whether there were any plans to close any ticket offices. The response from Southeastern was no. Was the Minister privy to any conversations or plans regarding ticket office closures before our meeting?

[Huw Merriman]

I will look back on our notes from that meeting and work out what was said. The train operators have put forward these proposals because they are required to look at their coverage and at how they need to adapt and modernise to give a better passenger experience. I have of course had discussions with them, and one of the examples that I have given over the course of the past three quarters of an hour is that of ensuring that more ticket options are put online and on to machines. I also made sure that my first discussions were with accessibility groups, because I wanted them to be able to give me their views. Yes, I have been involved in the process, and I will look back at the minutes from our meeting in December, assess what was said and write back to her.

[Mr Speaker]

Let us go to the centre of the railways: Strangford.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Strangford is the centre of the world, Mr Speaker.

Is the Minister aware that not everyone is completely computer literate or has access to a printer? For example, my 92-year-old mother has the capacity to go to the train station for a day trip, but she absolutely cannot go online because she is a cash person. Where in this decision is the consideration of people such as my mother and others of that generation? Surely customer care and satisfaction has to be key to any decision.

[Huw Merriman]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: customer care is at the forefront of this change. At the moment, a customer can go to a station and purchase a ticket from an office behind the glass, but only 10% of tickets are purchased in that manner. That means that other members of the public often do not receive any help or journey assistance in other parts of the station and do not get the full benefit of that member of staff. These changes are all about giving passengers a service. This is not just about buying tickets, with a member of staff with them at the machine showing passengers what to do, but about help in all other regards.

I have a great passion for the railways. I love this job, and I love the railways. All the staff who work on them do an amazing job. That is why I am spending three weeks of my summer visiting all parts of the system to learn more, assess more and reassure more. I recognise Members’ concerns, and I hope I have answered as many questions as I can. For those who want to meet me because they want to understand more, I am happy to do that, because I want every hon. Member to have everything they need to ensure that this change is positive for our passengers.

Robert Stephenson and Company: 200th Anniversary

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Wednesday 5th July 2023 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Nokes. I thank the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah) for securing this important debate on the potential merits of Government support for the 200th anniversary of Robert Stephenson and Company. She rightly pointed out that two Departments could have answered the debate. I hope, for the reasons I will come to, that she will understand why it is the Department for Transport and the Rail Minister doing that, rather than the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Let me talk about Railway 200, because the thrust of the hon. Member’s points relate to that plan. As she stated, for nearly 200 years the railways have been the fabric of our nation and one of our most treasured public institutions, connecting people across the country and driving economic growth. The Government recognise the extraordinary contribution that the railways have made in all parts of the United Kingdom, and that the 200th anniversary is an important moment to mark and celebrate.

As such, I am delighted that the Department for Transport will support Railway 200. Led by Network Rail, Railway 200 is the railway industry’s plan for a year-long programme of events, partnerships and initiatives to celebrate the railway and its positive impact, and officials in the Department are working closely with Network Rail and the Great British Railways transition team to deliver that important series of events.

On rail in the north-east, 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway and, as the hon. Member mentioned, the world’s first steam-hauled passenger railway journey, pulled by Locomotion No. 1, between Stockton and Shildon via Darlington. The idea soon caught on, connecting people and businesses first across the country and then around the rest of the world. It powered innovation, created opportunities and later played a crucial role in wartime.

I have been excited to learn of the activities being planned in local places to celebrate the bicentenary, including by Newcastle City Council, Darlington Borough Council and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. I am pleased that the Government and their arm’s length bodies are already contributing to a range of projects in the north-east in advance of the 2025 celebrations.

[Chi Onwurah]

I thank the Minister for his comments and support for the celebration of Railway 200, but the debate is specifically about Robert Stephenson and Company, which was founded in 1823, so the bicentenary is this year.

[Huw Merriman]

We are focused on the 200th year of the delivery of the railway. It is one of those matters where we get the title of the debate, think it through and think, “This is our opportunity to talk about what we are doing to mark 200 years of the railway.” Like me, the hon. Member referenced Locomotion No. 1, and that is the point I am addressing. Perhaps she could bear with me as I go through my speech, and if there are matters that she feels we have not addressed, we will of course respond to her accordingly.

I want to talk about what is going on in the north-east. Darlington was successful in a levelling-up bid in the most recent Budget, which included funding to upgrade the Darlington heritage centre. In 2019, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s “Vision 2025” project through the cultural investment fund, which included a transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and the Locomotion museum in County Durham in good time for the celebrations.

With Government funding, Historic England established the Stockton and Darlington railway heritage action zone to rejuvenate and restore the 26-mile stretch of historical railway and realise its potential to become a major visitor destination in the build-up to the bicentenary. Likewise, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, an arm’s length body of DCMS, has awarded more than £3.2 million of funding to support a five-year project to develop the Darlington rail heritage quarter, which is delivering a programme of engagement activity. There are fantastic opportunities for MPs to get involved in bicentenary celebrations and capitalise on cultural events throughout the country. DCMS has offered to share contacts with interested MPs so they can find out more about what they can do in their constituencies.

With your approval, Ms Nokes, may I talk generally about the railway and the 200 years over which it has delivered?

[Caroline Nokes (in the Chair)]

I will accept 200 years of railways, but not wind farms.

[Huw Merriman]

Okay, Ms Nokes—we will do just that. Of course, I will be stopped if you feel I am going off track, as it were.

The focus of Railway 200 is growth and renewal. The growth of the railways can be described by projects—completed or under way—that help us to celebrate the past that the hon. Member spoke about so well. Last year, the Elizabeth line, a new railway linking east and west in the south-east, opened, and it could account for one rail journey six.

We are investing even more money to link east and west in the north. The trans-Pennine route upgrade will see the electrification of the line that links Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York, which will transform the line and bring more frequent, reliable, faster and greener trains from rebuilt stations with longer platforms. Once that is completed, it will form the basis for Northern Powerhouse Rail to be delivered.

Linking north to south we have our new high-speed rail project, High Speed 2, which will reduce the journey time from Manchester to London by almost an hour and give this country a high-speed rail spine, which we have lived without for too long. All those new railway lines will help us to deliver our commitment to decarbonise rail by 2050.

As for renewal, that cannot be completed overnight, but it is well under way. In his Bradshaw address in February, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport set out his vision for rail: a customer-focused commercially-led industry with Great British Railways as the guiding mind for the sector. We have already delivered national flexi season tickets, with more than 700,000 sold so far, and we have rolled out single-leg pricing across the London North Eastern Railway network, going up to Newcastle and delivering simpler, more flexible tickets that are better value.

[Chi Onwurah]

The title of the debate is “Robert Stephenson and Company: 200th Anniversary”, and we should be considering the merits of celebrating that anniversary. I am sorry if the Department did not realise that the anniversary is this year and that the debate should be about the company. Perhaps the Minister needs to spend more time in the north-east to get that established.

I am happy for the Minister to write to me to answer the question of what has been done to celebrate the anniversary of Robert Stephenson and Company. There are six months of the year left, and something could be done in that time. The merit of the anniversary is that it should be used to inspire our young people to take up careers in industry.

[Caroline Nokes (in the Chair)]

May I interject? I allowed the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah), who is in charge of the debate, quite a lot of leeway, considering the title of the debate, and I have also allowed the Minister quite a lot of leeway. However, perhaps the Minister would like to focus tightly on Newcastle, and indeed the 200th anniversary of Robert Stephenson and Company. I have had enough of straying off the subject, from both Members.

[Huw Merriman]

I apologise, Ms Nokes. I love debates in which we can talk about the matters at hand. We of course roam around, which is absolutely right, but I will say that if hon. Members get in touch with me to say exactly what they want from the debate, regardless of political party, we will absolutely have that debate. I remind the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central that I have not once strayed off the subject of the railways, and I think it is fair to say that she gave us a good guided tour of industry in general. Perhaps I will just wrap up, shall I?

We look forward with great excitement to our anniversaries, particularly the industry’s 200th anniversary, which will be in 2025. This is our chance to show national pride in our railways and all they have delivered—not just for this country but around the world. I look forward also to working with the hon. Member with regard to her current celebration, about which we will write to her with more detail, and the even greater national celebrations in 2025.

Question put and agreed to.

High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill: Second Additional Provision

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Monday 3rd July 2023 Written Statements

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

On 9 March 2023, the Secretary of State for Transport restated the Government commitment to building HS2 between London Euston and Manchester. Continuing to progress the High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill through Parliament is a vital part of this commitment. Today the Government are introducing into Parliament a second additional provision to the High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill.

HS2 is a key part of the Government levelling-up agenda; this new railway will act as a catalyst for investment and economic growth, offering an unparalleled opportunity to deliver new homes, jobs and commercial development. The section of the railway between Crewe and Manchester will also form the foundations for Northern Powerhouse Rail, boosting inter-city connections and speeding up east-west rail services between the north’s towns and cities.

The second additional provision proposes a number of changes to the powers of the Bill. These changes have been developed following engagement with individuals and businesses, requests from individuals affected by the route, and further improvements to the route design, to ensure that the best possible railway is built. The main changes are:

Realignment of the M56 junction 6;

Lane and slip road works at junctions 19 and 20a of the M6;

Relocation of the Palatine Road Vent Shaft to the former Hollies Convent School site near the Britannia Country House Hotel;

Altered utility works to avoid or mitigate impacts on five ancient woodlands and sites of special scientific interest;

Road works along the line of route between Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly station to reduce congestion and increase road capacity during construction and operation.

The additional provision also includes works to reduce the risk of flooding, new footpath provision, changes to parking and taxi provision at Manchester Piccadilly station, and added areas of planting to mitigate impacts on the environment.

Delivery of a project on the scale of HS2 will inevitably cause disruption for local people and their communities. Those individuals who are directly and specially affected by today’s proposals can petition against the changes. The petitioning period will open tomorrow—4 July 2023 —and continue until 15 August. I have overseen extensive engagement with affected individuals and their communities by HS2 Ltd and I have written to elected representatives, such as parish councils and local authority leaders, as well as my colleagues with impacted constituencies in Parliament. Petitions will be heard by the specially appointed Select Committee. The Select Committee can make recommendations to address matters raised—it may amend the Bill, it may ask for new Bill powers, or it may require HS2 Ltd to address a petitioner’s issues via other means.

I am also publishing a supplementary environmental statement setting out the significant effects, mitigation, and compensation from the changes in the additional provision, as well as reporting new environmental information relating to the scheme. A public consultation on these documents will run until 31 August 2023. The documents will be put in the Libraries of both Houses and will also be made available in locations open to the public in all local authorities and parishes affected by the changes.

[HCWS904]

East Birmingham Tram Line

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Monday 26th June 2023 Commons Chamber

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

I thank the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Liam Byrne) for securing this debate and for his representations regarding transport services and growth opportunities in his constituency and the wider region. I pay tribute to him for the words he used—he has set out a great case for how transport can be an enabler to transform and regenerate areas that really do need it. His knowledge and expertise in this area speaks for itself, and I thank him for being an enabler of the HS2 project, for which I am very proud to be the Minister. He referred to the time when he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the work he did at that point. I can assure him that the Government are steadfastly committed to levelling up and empowering communities in the west midlands, and I want to talk about some of the ways that we are delivering that.

Let me begin by talking about local funding and opportunities. As the right hon. Member knows, the Government recognise the importance of transport to the people and economy of the west midlands, as demonstrated by the commitments made through the recent Trailblazer devolution deal. Our significant wider funding commitments also mark a further step in ensuring that we empower local leadership and enhance transport connectivity across the region.

Through the west midlands city region sustainable transport settlement, an unprecedented sum—more than £1 billion in capital funding—has been allocated to deliver projects and priorities which have been decided locally. For instance, West Midlands Combined Authority has earmarked £25 million of those funds to make significant improvements in bus services on the key A45 corridor in east Birmingham as part of its Sprint programme. The scheme will deliver new bus priority and journey time savings for passengers, linking people with opportunities in the city centre and Solihull and providing connections to Birmingham airport. The Department will work closely with stakeholders across the region to help ensure that schemes of this kind deliver economic growth and better transport experiences for local communities.

I am aware that the right hon. Member, and others, have called for an extension of the west midlands metro through east Birmingham to Solihull and Birmingham airport. As he will know, the metro route is already being extended eastwards as far as Digbeth, with backing of more than £131 million through the Government’s local growth fund programme. This scheme will serve the new Curzon Street station, helping to connect more of the region to the growth opportunities unlocked by HS2. I recognise the importance of the metro to the region, and I also recognise that light rail can be an attractive and environmentally friendly way of connecting people with jobs, education, healthcare and, indeed, each other in our largest towns and cities. While the Government are rightly investing in local transport networks across the country, local transport authorities retain responsibility for their delivery. The right hon. Member will appreciate that decisions on these proposals are devolved to the Mayor of the West Midlands, although I note his call for the Government to do the work that Governments can do to enable such proposals to reach their full potential.

It is crucial that local representatives, who know the challenges in their areas, are responsible for assessing the options available and ultimately deciding on the best way forward. I therefore encourage the right hon. Member—as well as pressing me, as he rightly does—to consult the Mayor about the proposals that he supports. He will know that Andy Street is a champion for transport throughout the west midlands, and frequently pushes me for more investment: he clearly shares the ambition to which the right hon. Member referred at the start of the debate. In his spring Budget statement, the Chancellor announced a second round of the city region sustainable transport settlements, providing areas across England with a further £8.8 billion over five years from 2027 to allow them to continue to develop transformational local transport improvements. That funding may represent an opportunity to develop the east Birmingham to Solihull metro proposals further, should the Mayor choose to do so.

Of course, I could not talk about transport in Birmingham without going into a little more detail about the opportunities for HS2. This new railway will change the economic geography of the whole country, bringing our biggest cities and economic regions closer together with reliable, low-carbon, high-capacity travel, and I take the right hon. Member’s point about its linking Birmingham not just with London—west London, that is, through Old Oak Common—but, via the new Elizabeth line, with Canary Wharf. It will provide enormous opportunities for businesses that are currently in London to extend their reach to Birmingham, and that is very much part of our ambition.

The Government are developing an HS2 local growth action plan which will outline the way in which we will continue to work with host station places to support their local growth ambitions. As the right hon. Member mentioned, around Curzon Street, in central Birmingham, HS2 will support thousands of new jobs—19,600, according to the latest estimate—and 2,200 additional homes. At the interchange station in Solihull, HS2 Ltd is working with local stakeholders on a brand-new, mixed-use development that will capitalise on its well-connected location. At Washwood Heath, HS2’s national control centre and maintenance depot, hundreds of new jobs in the railway sector will be created in east Birmingham. HS2 Ltd is committed to supporting further employment opportunities in the development area south of the depot through the release of land following its construction.

Mention has been made of surplus land at Washwood Heath and the question of when it will be released; I know that the right hon. Member has led the charge on that issue. I am advised that the design and extent of the environmental mitigation in the development area is still ongoing, but HS2 Ltd anticipates that the plan for the area will be submitted to Birmingham City Council for schedule 17 planning consent later this year.

I will conclude by addressing the right hon. Member’s three points. First, he spoke about a statement of principle and policy; I will write to him and provide as much detail as I can, which I hope will answer that call. Secondly, he asked whether I would meet him and other east Birmingham MPs so that ideas could be pitched; I should be delighted to meet them and will seek to do so at the earliest opportunity. Thirdly, he asked about support for Birmingham’s levelling-up bid and about matters relating to devolved taxation. He will know that it is not for Ministers in a spending Department to speak about such matters; in fact, in his previous role he would probably have been the first to give them a good ticking off for it. However, I will discuss the matter with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Treasury, and perhaps when I meet him I can provide him with any information that they give me.

[Liam Byrne]

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way, because I sense that he is about to conclude. The clear thing that we will need to discuss when we meet is how to ensure that the levelling-up zone maximises the opportunity of the High Speed 2 growth and opportunities plan. Between us, we must make sure that there is joined-up government.

[Huw Merriman]

I thank the right hon. Member for making that point. He is absolutely right. To continue to make the case for HS2—I will certainly do so, and I am grateful that he is doing likewise—we have to show that it really can maximise growth. We are very happy to take all ideas from Members of this House, and indeed from wider stakeholders, for how that can occur. Matters that are in the domain of other Departments will need to be decided on by those Departments, but I am certainly happy to feed ideas through and see what can be done.

I thank the right hon. Member for his continued engagement with HS2 and for raising the other matters that he has listed in relation to regenerating his constituency and the city that I know he loves. Significant funding has been and continues to be invested in delivering transformative local transport projects. My Department will continue to work with regional stakeholders to make the most of this once-in-a-generation opportunity and identify ways to improve transport links, drive economic growth and improve access to jobs, education, healthcare and leisure. I look forward to working with the right hon. Member, and with his colleagues nearby, on these shared priorities.

Question put and agreed to.

High Speed 2 Parliamentary Report

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Monday 19th June 2023 Written Statements

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

I am reporting continued progress on High Speed 2 (HS2) with the Government’s sixth update on HS2 to Parliament.

The Government remain committed to delivering HS2 from London Euston to Manchester and the east midlands to bring our biggest cities and economic regions closer and giving companies and workers more choice about where they locate and live.

Since notice to proceed on phase 1 three years ago, we have seen significant progress on construction of the Birmingham to London section, Royal Assent to the High Speed Rail (West Midlands to Crewe) Act 2021 and the introduction of High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill to Parliament.

On 9 February 2023, Sir Jon Thompson was appointed as the Chair of HS2 Ltd following an extensive search. The Secretary of State for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper) was pleased to meet him and the HS2 Ltd Board in Birmingham on 12 April 2023 to discuss the programme.

Progress on building the railway has been achieved in the face of significant challenges from the effects of covid-19 and the impact of excess inflation driven by the war in Ukraine.

As the Secretary of State for Transport outlined in his written statement to Parliament on 9 March 2023, the Government have acted to balance the nation’s books, necessitating deferral of some of the Department for Transport’s capital spending including rephasing the delivery of parts of HS2. As set out in previous reports, the Government remain concerned about the increasing projected costs to complete phase 1 reported by HS2 Ltd.

Construction of the Old Oak Common to Birmingham Curzon Street section continues at full pace, which will provide initial passenger services to schedule. There has been notable progress on this section in this period.

HS2’s tunnel boring machine (TBM), Dorothy, began and completed her second one-mile tunnel bore under Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire and the Chiltern TBMs reached the halfway point of their 10-mile drive at Christmas. Six TBM journeys have now been launched on phase 1 and driven a total distance of approximately 14.5 miles. Work is progressing north of Birmingham but has been rephased south of Old Oak Common and at Euston.

We remain committed to delivering HS2 services to Euston. We have decided not to proceed with construction at Euston over the next two years both to reduce expenditure during that period and to address the affordability challenge set out in the recent National Audit Office report. We will use this time to develop a more affordable scheme design that delivers for passengers, the local community and taxpayers.

The Government will not be proceeding to construction on phase 2a—west midlands to Crewe—in the next two years to reduce expenditure. We will use the time to develop mature designs and delivery approaches to ensure that this section is delivered in the most cost-effective way.

The High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill Select Committee Members have now been appointed and the Committee has begun hearing petitions against the Bill and first additional provision (AP1), which gives effect to Parliament’s instruction to remove the Golborne Link from the bill while alternatives are considered.

Other notable milestones of the HS2 programme in this reporting period include:

HS2 Ltd and its supply chain have now begun over 1,200 apprenticeships, more than halfway to the target, with the programme now supporting over 28,500 jobs as of March 2023.

There are now 19 diesel-free work sites on the HS2 programme. This is a significant step towards the project’s aim to cut carbon emissions during construction and improve air quality for workers and local communities.

In North Warwickshire, the Marston Box Rail Bridge—the world’s longest box slide—was successfully installed. During a short closure of the M42 over Christmas 2022,450 people worked to move the 12,600-tonne box structure 165 metres across the motorway into position.

Despite the global economic challenges, this Government are continuing to invest in the country’s future infrastructure. HS2 is not just a railway: it will drive economic growth and opportunities across the country, provide a low-carbon alternative to car travel and domestic flights and train a skilled workforce for the UK’s future infrastructure sector.

This report uses data provided by HS2 Ltd for phases 1, 2a, 2b and HS2 East and covers the period between September 2022 and February 2023 inclusive. Unless stated, all figures are presented in 2019 prices. Data on benefits performance is reported on quarterly; the data included in this report is taken from March 2023.

Programme update

Schedule

The forecast date for initial HS2 services between Birmingham Curzon Street and Old Oak Common remains within the range of 2029 to 2033.

On the phase 2b western leg, we continue to aim for the delivery of the railway within the estimated delivery-into-service date range of 2035 to 2041, as provided in the Strategic Outline Business Case. The High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill is currently working its way through Parliament.

Following the decision to rephase the construction of Euston and phase 2a, revised delivery-into-service ranges for these elements of the railway will be confirmed once plans have been redeveloped.

Affordability

As set out in the last Parliamentary Report, HS2 Ltd has advised the Department for Transport (DfT) that its projected costs for phase 1 would exceed the target cost of £40.3 billion if unmitigated.

HS2 Ltd’s Executive and Board are currently reviewing the estimate at completion for phase 1. This will assess the previous pressures and further emerging costs as well as the work the Government commissioned from HS2 Ltd to address these pressures.

With around half of the phase 1 budget spent and significant work completed on enabling and main works, this is an appropriate time to review the projected costs against the budget noting that significant judgments remain in any projection. I will update Parliament further once this important work has been concluded and assured.

As reported in the recent National Audit Office report on Euston, the latest proposed target price from the construction partner—Mace Dragados joint venture—is £4.8 billion—around £2.2 billion over HS2 Ltd’s budget and a higher cost than the previous design.

I visited the Euston site on 5 April 2023 and saw for myself the challenges of constructing a complex station in a dense urban environment that will integrate with the existing conventional station and London Underground and local transport, as well as enabling oversite development.

Nonetheless, the station is not affordable at this cost, nor in any case, does the Government have the financial headroom to proceed with the construction over the next two years. We will, therefore, use the time to look again at the Euston station design to ensure it delivers for passengers, the local community and taxpayers. This will include considering how we might partner with the private sector to capture benefits for customers. It will require careful prioritisation of requirements and a willingness from stakeholders to compromise.

I welcome the NAO’s report and recommendations, and we will act upon them as we look again. Officials are now working with the Euston Partnership, HS2 Ltd and Mace Dragados to understand the causes of the additional costs and to develop alternative delivery options. I will update Parliament as this work progresses through future publications of this report.

As it was noted in the last Parliamentary report, like the rest of the economy, the HS2 programme has experienced higher-than-expected levels of inflation, which HS2 Ltd is actively seeking to mitigate alongside its supply chain.

The Secretary of State’s written statement to Parliament of 9 March 2023 outlined the action we have taken over the short term to rephase certain parts of the programme in order to live within annual cash budgets.

HS2 Ltd is working with its supply chain to understand the wider cost and schedule implications for the programme, including identifying mitigations that seek to protect taxpayer value-for-money from these deferrals. Nonetheless, the decisions I have made will ensure that spending on the programme in the next two years remains within the annual budgets that have been allocated to HS2, and reflect the need to manage the inflationary pressures that the UK is facing.

Reporting progress on the programme in 2019 values does not reflect the significant inflation that has occurred since and I intend to work with HM Treasury to update the price base.

Delivery

Phase 1 delivery continues to build momentum with around 350 active construction sites between the West Midlands and London. Six years after beginning work, all the early works contractors have now left sites having prepared them for the main work civils contractors who are entering peak construction effort this year.

Tunnel drives are making good progress across all three sites. In March 2023, the TBM named Dorothy completed its work under Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire, completing its second one-mile drive and marking the first complete twin-bore tunnel across the project. In the Chilterns, the TBMs called Florence and Cecilia have successfully reached Amersham Vent Shaft, which represents the halfway point of their 10-mile drive. Sushila and Caroline, the two TBMs used to create the first section of tunnel that will make up the 8.4-mile Northolt Tunnels between West Ruislip and Old Oak Common station, are also making progress.

Overall, five of the 10 TBMs boring the tunnels for the route have launched, two of the 12 TBM journeys are now complete and approximately 14.5 miles have been dug.

In November 2022,1 attended the launch of a 1.7-mile-long conveyor system that is removing spoil excavated from three London construction sites: Old Oak Common Station, Victoria Road Crossover Box and Atlas Road. The conveyor transports excavated material to Willesden Euro Terminal, where earth is processed and then removed by rail freight to three sustainable sites in Kent, Rugby and Cambridgeshire, significantly reducing HS2’s carbon footprint.

To date, approximately 125,000 tonnes of excavated material has been transported by the conveyor, removing circa 7,400 lorries from the roads, significantly reducing the traffic congestion and carbon emissions for residents.

At Old Oak Common, the excavation of the underground box that will house the subterranean HS2 station platforms is well underway. In line with the programme, groundworks for the conventional rail station that will accommodate eight platforms on the realigned Great Western mainline and relief tines commenced in October 2022, which together will provide a step change in connectivity for the area. This is a crucial step forward in realising the potential for creation of jobs and provision of housing enabled by the station, which together with the Mayor we are working hard to achieve.

Stage 1 of the 2 two stage design and build contracts for Birmingham Curzon Street Station and Interchange Station at Solihull are expected to conclude later this year, subject to agreement of affordable target prices.

HS2 Ltd continues tendering for phase 1 and 2a rail systems packages, including track, catenary, mechanical and electrical power, control and communications. The tendering process has been extended to clarify scope and provide opportunity for tenderers to submit updated competitive bids.

On phase 2a, early environmental works have demonstrated good progress, with design complete for all sites. Five utility diversions have been completed along the phase 2a route. These have predominantly related to diversions of high-pressure gas pipelines, which are works that only the network provider can perform and have annual windows for outages that constrain when works can be done. Further construction work will be suspended for the next two years, but we expect to continue some design work in preparation for the start of major construction works.

On the phase 2b Western Leg, the High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill had its second reading in June 2022 and it was remitted to a Select Committee. The first additional provision (AP1) was deposited on 6 July 2022 and a further additional provision will be deposited shortly. The committee is continuing its work hearing petitions against both the bill and AP1. While the bill progresses through Parliament, HS2 Ltd is working to develop a robust future delivery strategy for the scheme applying lessons from phase 1.

The Government have committed to progressing HS2 East, which is currently in its development stage. HS2 East will feature a new high-speed line between the West Midlands and East Midlands, which will allow HS2 to serve Nottingham and Sheffield (via Derby and Chesterfield).HS2 Ltd and Network Rail are undertaking work to develop advice on these plans, in conjunction with work by Network Rail to electrify the Midland Main Line. The output of this work will be used to inform future decisions by the government on how to progress the scheme, including how HS2 East can support economic growth aspirations in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire.

Benefits

Growth and opportunities for local communities

We are committed to bringing the transformational benefits of HS2 to places as soon as possible. HS2 will act as a catalyst for growth around new station sites and this is already well underway at station sites along the route.

At Old Oak Common, work continues to strengthen collaboration with the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, the London Mayor and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to bring forward regeneration proposals for the area around the station, with a projected 25,500 new homes and 56,000 new jobs.

Through regional development, HS2 will provide an opportunity to level up the economies of the midlands and the north.

At Interchange Station in Solihull, HS2 Ltd continues to work collaboratively with private and public sector stakeholders to support local ambitions to realise the economic and social benefits of HS2 and provide up to 30,000 new jobs and 3,000 new homes through a high-quality masterplan for development.

In the heart of Birmingham, the West Midlands Combined Authority anticipates 19,600 new jobs and 2,200 additional new homes around the Curzon Street area. DfT and HS2 Ltd are also working closely with DLUHC to make sure that wider regeneration is delivered at Crewe.

HS2 offers an unprecedented opportunity to transform local areas. We are developing an HS2 local growth action plan outlining how this Government will continue to work with host station places to support their local growth ambitions. Alongside this, later this year, we will publish an HS2 investment leaflet and brochure showcasing HS2 places to potential investors.

Green transport for a net-zero future

Environmental sustainability is integral to HS2’s design, with huge efforts being made to minimise the impact of construction on biodiversity, to limit the level of carbon emissions during construction and to respect people and places.

HS2 Ltd’s latest Environmental sustainability progress report was published in December 2022, highlighting key environmental achievements, including how we are continuing to update designs on the project to minimise impacts to sensitive habitats. For example, on phase 1, we have now reduced the ancient woodland impacted by construction by a third.

HS2 Ltd is leading on the decarbonisation of the construction industry.

I was pleased to confirm in December 2022 that HS2 Ltd had launched a Diesel free plan, which sets out how all HS2 construction sites will eliminate diesel use by 2029. Good progress is being made with 19 construction sites on the project now operating completely diesel-free.

Further efforts to reduce carbon emissions in construction include the launch of a construction railhead in Aylesbury to move more materials by rail and the 1.7-mile conveyor system in West London. These initiatives will remove over one million lorry journeys from local roads, improving air quality around sites and reducing noise pollution and traffic impacts for local communities.

HS2 will be an important part of the sustainable transport network. The programme will improve active travel opportunities such as cycling and walking, creating a sustainable transport legacy for local communities.

HS2 Ltd has appointed an active travel team to oversee the delivery of facilities for more cycling and walking in 20 locations across phase 1and to assess five locations on phase 2a. HS2 Ltd has continued to assess opportunities to repurpose some sections of haul roads and access routes into cycling and walking routes, where local communities are in agreement.

Skilled workers for an innovative industry

HS2 is playing a significant role in growing skills for the wider construction industry and today is supporting over 28,500 jobs. The programme celebrated its 1,000th new apprentice and is now over halfway to its target of creating 2,000 apprenticeships over the course of the programme, with over 1,200 apprentices recruited to date. Over 3,200 people who were previously unemployed have been supported into work on the project.

HS2 continues to support businesses across the UK—there are over 3,000 unique UK businesses in the supply chain and over 61% of the overall supply chain are small or medium-sized enterprises. The HS2 supply chain continues to beat industry averages for female and BAME employees, achieving 28% and 23% respectively.

Following the spring Budget 2023 and in light of the rephasing of parts of HS2 , we anticipate that some roles will be redeployed within the programme, or individuals will secure relevant employment that builds on the skills they have gained working on HS2.

HS2 is helping to train a skilled workforce for the UK’s future construction industry and it is expected that many of those currently working on HS2 will, in the future, go on to work on other infrastructure programmes in skilled, well-paid jobs.

Innovation across the programme is making HS2 more efficient—HS2 Ltd has established an ecosystem of innovative partners across a world-class supply chain, leading academic frameworks from infrastructure and rail, and an entrepreneurial accelerator to boost and scale digital technology start-ups into the sector.

Local community impact and engagement

The decision to rephase construction for phase 2a and Euston will lead to increased uncertainty around the schedule and status of HS2 works in these areas and we are sympathetic to the prolonged impact on some local communities in the areas where we have rephased work. HS2 Ltd will continue to focus its community engagement to address any uncertainty and ensure that affected communities and residents are kept informed and involved.

The Independent Construction Commissioner and Residents’ Commissioner will continue to report regularly on the delivery of HS2 works, including on the impact of delays and uncertainty, and provide assurance that HS2 is still being delivered in a considerate, efficient and responsible way.

The HS2 Helpdesk has now recorded 204,918 enquiries since its launch in 2018. Of the overall enquiries, 5,469 have been complaints, of which 100% of urgent construction enquiries and complaints have been responded to within 2 working days between April 2022 and February 2023. HS2 Ltd received 1,032 complaints between April 2022 and February 2023. This compares with 1,515 for the same period in 2021 to 2022, a decrease of 32%.

The volume of anti-HS2 protestor activity has decreased significantly since September 2022 when the High Court granted HS2 Ltd an injunction prohibiting trespass on, and obstruction of access to, land acquired. There are currently no protestor sites that directly threaten safety, the supply chain or the delivery of HS2. HS2 Ltd is currently seeking an extension and renewal of the injunction.

To date, illegal protest has cost the project an estimated £38 million in direct costs and around £113 million in consequential costs such as delays.

HS2’s community and business funds, the Community and Environment Fund and the Business and Local Economy Fund, are helping to leave a positive legacy in areas affected by construction near the new railway. Over £15 million has so far been granted to 268 projects from Crewe to London, helping to attract over £65 million in additional match funding.

Land and property

We continue to acquire land between the west midlands and Crewe to meet the five-year limit set by Parliament for phase 2a.

We continue to protect the route from the west midlands to Manchester from alternative development by means of safeguarding directions. We also maintain current safeguarding and property schemes across the Eastern Leg and committed in the Integrated Rail Plan that this will remain in place until final decisions on routing HS2 services to Leeds are made.

We are publishing research into attitudes to a variation to the Need to Sell non-statutory scheme alongside this report. We have concluded that pursuing the variation further is not justified, as any potential improvements it offers to the existing scheme appear marginal.

Programme governance and controls

Following a comprehensive search, on 9 February 2023, the Secretary of State for Transport announced the appointment of Sir Jonathan Thompson as the new Chair of HS2 Ltd. He will be supported by Elaine Holt, whom the Secretary of State has asked to take on the role of Deputy Chair and reappointed for a further term on the HS2 Ltd Board, alongside Dame Judith Hackitt and Stephen Hughes.

These appointments are critical to ensuring the HS2 Ltd Board has the right capability to oversee the delivery of this large and complex project and ensure benefits are fully realised.

Forward look

On phase 1, as we enter peak construction there will be more earth moved, more concrete poured and more visible progress of construction above ground.

HS2 Ltd has appointed a managing director for the rail systems alliance, the team that will be responsible for delivering systems packages including track installation, overhead catenary and high-voltage power in a collaborative and integrated model.

In the coming months, HS2 Ltd will continue to develop its internal processes and capabilities, including governance arrangements, to manage the integration risk between the 14 different systems suppliers in advance of appointing contractors.

On the phase 2b Western Leg, ongoing design development work has enabled HS2 Ltd to identify further scheme changes that may be brought forward in relation to highway, environmental mitigation and utility works. Some of these changes will be proposed in a second additional provision (AP2), focusing on the northern part of the route between Crewe and Manchester.

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) trailblazer deeper devolution deal, in addition to highlighting the benefits of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail for Greater Manchester, confirmed the GMCA’s commitment to engage meaningfully on a locally led funding strategy for scope in the High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill. This is subject to a local funding contribution, with the expectation of significant progress by the end of 2023.1 welcome this commitment and look forward to progress being made on these issues.

I will continue to engage closely with Parliament and provide an update in the next publication of this report.

Financial Annex ^[1]

Forecast costs by phase—2019 prices.

Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Wednesday 14th June 2023 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Fovargue, and to reply to this debate secured by my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers). I thank him for his work as chair of the all-party group for rail.

Given my former role as Chair of the Transport Committee, it is also a pleasure to be surrounded by former Committee colleagues, including the shadow Rail Minister, the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi), who cannot stand to be Chair. We also have two former Transport Ministers. I welcome all continued liaison with the Transport Committee—a great Committee with great members.

In his Bradshaw address in February, the Transport Secretary set out his vision for rail: a customer-focused, commercially-led industry with Great British Railways as the guiding mind for the sector. I welcome the supportive comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes about the Bradshaw address and the need for a guiding mind. I agree and, to answer my shadow, we still support it and will still deliver it.

The case for rail transformation is now stronger than ever. As many have said in the debate, the railways are not delivering the services that customers deserve. The industry remains fragmented, which limits effective decision making. The existing commercial model is not sustainable, with the cost to the taxpayer remaining too high, and the structure does not provide adequate opportunity for private sector investment or initiative. Like my hon. Friends, I fully support the private sector in what it does and what it has done in the past; we need it now more than ever, following the pandemic and the reduction in passenger numbers. We need to put customers at the heart of what we do.

By establishing Great British Railways, we will enable a single guiding mind to co-ordinate the network, bringing infrastructure and operational decisions together, and planning coherently for the future with robust levers of accountability. It will develop local partnerships to bring decision making closer to the communities that the railways serve. Importantly, Great British Railways will enhance the role of the private sector, developing a new commercial model that focuses on operators competing to deliver high-quality, punctual services and excellent customer service.

New passenger service contracts will balance the right performance incentives with simple, commercially-driven contracts. Those will not be one size fits all. I want the private sector to play its part in reinvigorating the rail sector, driving innovation and attracting customers to rail. We are now working with industry on how we can introduce more private sector risk and reward into existing contracts.

On the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes about open access, I too want to see more open access where it benefits passengers and taxpayers, with a more level playing field in track charging. As part of rail reform, we want more competition to drive up quality and choice. We look forward to working with existing open access operators, as well as new entrants to the market such as Grand Union Trains, which will shortly introduce new services between London and Carmarthen, to maximise benefits for passengers. Legislation is needed to take forward some of the structural elements of reform, but we will ensure that customers feel the benefits as soon as possible, ahead of the introduction of such legislation.

My hon. Friend mentioned the Luxembourg rail protocol. The Government signed it in 2016 and remain committed to unlocking the benefits of greater private sector financing of rolling stock, which the protocol aims to support. The Government intend to implement the protocol, and we will continue to explore all suitable legislative opportunities to do so.

Let me turn to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes about lowering barriers to entry to create a more competitive retail market. As set out in the plan for rail, we recognise that there is a multitude of train company websites with different standards of service, which is confusing to passengers. We are looking and working closely with industry partners to review the best way to address that. Reform is not something that can be completed overnight, but delivery is well under way. We have launched national flexi-season tickets, as mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton), and over 700,000 have been sold since launch. We have delivered on our commitment to extend single-leg pricing to the rest of the LNER network from 11 June. That delivers simpler, more flexible tickets that are better value. In March, we announced Derby as the winner of the GBR HQ competition.

The accessibility audit of all 2,572 railway stations in Great Britain is complete and work is under way to ensure that data is kept up to date and made available to the public. In response to the points on rail freight, the rail freight growth target call for evidence will be published shortly, and we remain committed to introducing a long-term rail freight growth target towards the end of this year.

The transition team at Great British Railways has analysed hundreds of responses to the first-ever long-term strategy for rail call for evidence. The plan will be published later this year. In response to the complex rules and industry processes, the Great British Railways transition team, with the support of the Office of Rail and Road, will identify and recommend such rules and what can be done.

We continue to press ahead to deliver reforms and tangible benefits, including publishing the Department’s response to the rail reform legislation consultation this summer, taking forward workforce reform, developing the new commercial model, and continuing to simplify fares and roll out pay-as-you-go ticketing, ahead of legislation. I was asked many questions about legislation in the debate; I can only say that we will deliver legislation when parliamentary time allows. Such decisions are made collectively across Government and can be confirmed only during the King’s Speech in autumn.

I heard the call from my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart), Chair of the Transport Committee; Nigel Harris is indeed an influential figure who has a lot of good ideas. With regard to the suggestion of a shadow body, I am working with my Department—I had meetings in the last week—to try to escalate and set up more of the teams, so that rather than waiting for matters to be transitioned over, they can take those matters and come up with ideas. I am not saying that our idea is exactly the same as the one put forward, but we are looking to create the very same culture. My hon. Friend is absolutely right: so much can be done without legislation, and so much is being done. Since the end of last year, I have met weekly with the team that is transitioning everything to Great British Railways to ensure that whatever can move without legislation does move. The reality is that this change project is more about getting the change delivered than, ultimately, about legislation; legislation delivers paper and powers—it does not actually deliver the change, which is what I am working on.

To the point made by my shadow, the hon. Member for Slough, it is deeply regrettable that today ASLEF has balloted its members to continue strike action. It has balloted to ask for a continuation of strikes, but it has not asked its members whether they would like to take up the fair and reasonable pay offer put forward by industry, which would take average pay from £60,000 to £65,000 for a 35-hour week. That is on the table, but it is not being put to members. We remain committed to that offer, but we ask the unions to do their part and ask their members to give their view on it. I hope that the hon. Member would join me in welcoming that stance, which could bring an end to strikes rather than seeing the unions continue to put this country and rail passengers through absolute misery.

To conclude, nationalisation is not the answer. We need simplification and modernisation. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes: privatisation has been a success story. The new model will take the very best of the private sector—innovation, an unrelenting focus on quality and outstanding customer service—and fuse it with a single guiding mind to drive benefits and efficiencies across the system as a whole. I look forward to working with all my colleagues across the House to make this reform work.

East West Rail: Bedford to Cambridge

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Tuesday 13th June 2023 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure, Sir Mark, to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire (Richard Fuller) for securing this important debate on East West Rail from Bedford to Cambridge. I have listened carefully to his representations. As everyone in the debate has said, he makes excellent points and sets us a challenge. I am keen to work with him to address those points.

I have noted the six or seven points he raised. I will go through some this afternoon, but I will write to him on all of them. I want to work with him to ensure the project is delivered in a way that maximises benefits for members of his constituency and the country as a whole. I am well aware that, when it comes to building new railways, some are very much in favour because they benefit directly or indirectly from the delivery of that new railway. We will always call for infrastructure to be delivered before housing. This is an opportunity where that can be delivered.

Of course, there are those whose lives are directly impacted and blighted by railways, who suffer as a result of the build. I have every sympathy with them, and I am keen to work with my hon. Friend and other hon. Members to minimise that and to give as much information, clarity and frankness in the process as we can. I say that as someone whose family lives in Buckingham and is well aware of the impact of HS2. “I get it,” is what I want to say this afternoon.

Let me speak a little about the project and then go into detail as I go along. The East West Rail project will improve the UK economy, supporting ambitions for the Oxford to Cambridge region, to add £103 billion extra gross value added by 2050, securing the UK’s future as a world leader in science and technology. East West Rail will improve connectivity and ensure growth is spread across the region as a whole. The route update announcement, which was mentioned, was laid before us on 26 May, and set out the preferred route alignment between Bedford and Cambridge. That would serve new stations at Tempsford and Cambourne, and approach Cambridge from the south, enabling services to call at the new Cambridge South station and to serve the world-leading biomedical campus. As my hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Anthony Browne) mentioned, I was at the site a couple of weeks ago. It is absolutely fantastic; people are incredibly excited about what this railway will deliver through not just better connectivity but allowing more jobs to flow to the campus, enabling it to succeed and to take on the world’s finest. I am very excited to have been able to announce the funding.

The route update announcement is a milestone that reaffirms the Government’s commitment to the project, along with funding of £1.3 billion to deliver the first connection stage of East West Rail between Bicester and Bletchley. It is part of our national commitment to unlock transformative growth within the globally renowned Oxford-Cambridge hub of science, research and technology. It will transform connectivity for residents and businesses in addition to supporting economic growth and local housing plans. Again, I acknowledge the challenge that housing can deliver in that particular part of the country. The support from Cambridge University, biopharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Oxford University science park and local enterprise partnerships across the route demonstrates the confidence that key stakeholders and businesses have in the benefits of East West Rail.

With every project at this scale, important decisions must be made to optimise and maximise the benefits it can provide. The proposal to build new stations at Tempsford and Cambourne will enable communities to grow, provide opportunities to improve biodiversity and give people increasing access to green spaces, significantly outweighing the benefits that a St Neots station could provide. As I have stated, I recognise that the proposals will have an impact on some homes and businesses. In particular, I understand the concerns of residents immediately to the north of Bedford station.

The hon. Member for Bedford (Mohammad Yasin) mentioned a six-track rather than a four-track proposal. That is being put in place to regulate the disruptive performance on the existing Midland main line, as well as to mitigate congestion and provide options for future growth. It is an example of where we are building for the future, not just through East West Rail, but to deal with a spot of disruption that already exists. By going to the six-track proposal, we will deliver better infrastructure and a better service on both of those lines, though I do recognise that it has more of an impact on residents.

For local residents who are affected, East West Rail Company has launched a need to sell scheme, designed to support residents who have a compelling need to sell their property but are unable to do so other than at a substantially lower value because of the railway. On the point made by the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) that I should meet the hon. Member for Bedford, I did that very recently. We discussed the case of one of his constituents and were able to talk about a solution. I continue to make myself available to all hon. Members on behalf of their constituents who are impacted.

East West Rail Company has also proposed to provide a new relocated station building at Bedford Midland, which will offer opportunities for local authorities to partner with East West Rail to deliver a destination station, if supported by third-party funding. Alongside that, the existing Bedford St Johns station will be relocated so that it is closer to Bedford Hospital, providing better connectivity for patients, hospital staff and visitors. Proposals for East West Rail will also mean a significant investment in the Marston Vale line between Bletchley and Bedford to provide a step change in the frequency of services.

As the House and my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire will know, East West Rail Company is holding public information events to answer the questions that have been raised by Members on behalf of their constituents. It is also meeting with stakeholders along the line of route. I will take some of the questions that have been posed, particularly by my hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire about the design stage, and get responses to them.

A statutory consultation is planned for the first half of next year, in which the next stage of technical and operational design proposals will be presented alongside plans to mitigate any associated environmental impacts. East West Rail Company has committed to delivering a 10% biodiversity net gain across the entire project, and traction options such as full electrification along the whole line of route are currently being reviewed.

Phase 1, which goes from Oxford over to Bletchley, is a mix of an existing line and one that once was a railway line. Phase 2, from Bletchley to Bedford, is an existing line. In that sense, electrification is a more difficult challenge, because bridges and other infrastructure are already in place and would have to be significantly changed. Where we have built new bridges and infrastructure, we have done so with electrification for the future in mind, so there is that pathway available to it. Of course, we are looking toward hybrid options in future as far as trains are concerned, which would enable a better, decarbonised line of route. I know all hon. Members have mentioned that point.

The business case was also referenced. As is standard for a project of this size, a final business case will be put forward once planning consent is secured. Before then, a development consent order application will be prepared in accordance with the Planning Act 2008. East West Rail demonstrates the Government’s commitment to supporting growth and improving connectivity for people and business across the Oxford and Cambridge region.

Let me come to some of the points that were raised—my hon. Friends worked hard to raise as many as they could. The first question was, will I walk the line of route? I am not sure whether that is an invitation to walk the entire line of route or selected parts of it, but I am certainly able to say yes to the former—sorry, I should say the latter. I should get that right for Hansard. Yes, I will walk parts of the line of route so that my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire can show me the areas that are impacted. Indeed, we did something similar when we looked at the options of coming into Cambridge from the north or going from Cambridge to the south, and I will of course do that in my hon. Friend’s constituency.

My hon. Friend mentioned the new Mayor, Tom Wootton. I met him and he laid out his arguments as to why he believes the line of route should come through the south rather than the north of Bedford. I have said I will write back to him to explain our thinking behind that and I am very happy to continue to liaise with him. We need to ensure that our case is the strongest case and cannot be rebutted, and that it is not only open and transparent but subject to challenges that will make it more robust. I am very keen to do that.

My hon. Friend also asked whether the National Audit Office will conduct an inquiry. We can consider that option. I always enjoyed working with the NAO when I was Chair of the Transport Committee; it has a lot of value to add when it comes to ensuring projects are built to time and cost. External assurance is provided by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, whose next review is expected before the statutory consultation. It works as an external review body for the project.

My hon. Friend asked whether I will instruct East West Rail to release the maps. We can check what further information and detail can be provided. East West Rail does not yet have a detailed design for every single area, but where it has the details, it will publish them. It has done so in the Poets area of Bedford. I am very keen that we do that at the earliest opportunity to give residents and businesses impacted by the line as much clarity and detail as possible, so I will look at that point for my hon. Friend.

My hon. Friend’s fifth point was about writing to property owners about the current corridor. East West Rail has written to property owners about the route update announcement and will engage with them further in the lead-up to the statutory consultation. Again, I am committed to ensuring that more detail is provided. I will come back to my hon. Friend on all those points and the one or two that I have not addressed because I have not had the time.

The hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) asked how much money has been spent on the Oxford-to-Cambridge road that was proposed and then stopped, and how many officials are still working on it. I can tell him that £28 million was spent on the development project, and there are no officials working on it right now. I hope he is impressed with that transparency and immediacy.

My hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire asked who will be responsible for producing the business case. It is East West Rail in partnership with the DFT. We will work closely with the Treasury to make sure that is properly done in the manner that one would expect. There was talk of the theory of change exercise. That methodology is validated by the Government. We have previously discussed the fact that the Green Book is not particularly good at taking into account regeneration and decarbonisation. Changes have now been made; I welcome them because they mean that transport, and certainly rail projects, score much higher. We will of course ensure that that is rigorous, and that the preparation is transparent. I note my hon. Friend’s expertise in this area from his academic background and his business work. I am keen to work with him to ensure the business case works and is in the right form. He can take that assurance.

The hon. Member for Slough visited Winslow. I did so too, and I was actually brought up a few miles away. I am a supporter of this project because when I went to the further education college in Aylesbury, I used to go over that bridge every day, and there was nothing going on underneath it. Now, as the hon. Gentleman is aware, there is a station that will be ready to be opened shortly, and off the back of that we have the housing and the school. The secondary school in Winslow closed down. I was at secondary school in Buckingham, and all the pupils had to be bussed over. That no longer has to happen, and it is the railway that has allowed that to be built. Winslow is a good example of the fact that, if we build the infrastructure, the rest follows.

I am keen to work with the hon. Member for Slough, because it is clear that he supports East West Rail and wants it delivered. I support his support, as it were. He talked about the electrification miles that have been built, but I have to correct the record. In the past 13 years, while we have been in government, 1,200 miles of railway has been electrified. In the previous 13 years, when the Labour party was in power, the figure was a paltry 63 miles. I am sure the hon. Gentleman will not wish to give me any lessons about how to electrify lines, because we are doing that.

[Mr Dhesi]

rose—

[Huw Merriman]

I know the hon. Gentleman is going to tell me that he will do a lot more in the future, but the trouble is that we only have Labour’s record to judge him on, not his future deeds. Go on, have a go.

[Mr Dhesi]

I would like to rebut what the Minister just said. I referred to what has been electrified in the past year, which is a mere 2.2 km of rail line. The Minister is right to point to the Conservative-led Governments’ record in the past 13 years, but having been Chair of the Transport Committee, he will also be aware that the previous Labour Government’s main priority was to invest tens of billions of pounds in our rolling stock to get rid of the old, inefficient trains that we inherited from the previous Conservative Government after 18 years of grinding public transport to a halt. Having got the rolling stock back up to full speed, the last decade has been a lost decade for electrification, which is what other European Governments have done. That is why I said that the Minister and the Conservative Government have been failing on electrification.

[Huw Merriman]

That was more than an intervention. The reality is—

[Mr Dhesi]

It was a reality check!

[Huw Merriman]

I am impressed with that argument, actually, that rather than electrifying lines—I am a big supporter of that, and we want to and will do more, as we have done 1,200 miles whereas, as I pointed out, in the previous 13 years Labour had done 63—there was a priority focus on rolling stock. That really is pulling the other one. We have been doing both during that whole process. If the hon. Member has been on an Azuma train, he will know full well that they have been delivered under our—

[Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)]

Order. Can we stick to the subject, please?

[Huw Merriman]

Of course, Sir Mark. I am happy to do so, but the invention was so long that I thought you might give me the grace of replying to it fully. I think the point has been made.

Overall, we are committed to the project of East West Rail. The hon. Member for Cambridge set out the case that was recognised—

[Mohammad Yasin]

Will the Minister give way?

[Huw Merriman]

I will make a little more progress, then I will perhaps give way one final time.

My hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire mentioned the housing challenges in the area. I recognise that, because, having family and being brought up between Oxford and Cambridge, I see that every single time I go back. He is right to prod me on the figures. In my own constituency, we have an 85% area of outstanding natural beauty. I would like to see more development, so that we have the housing, infrastructure and resources where I am, and spread that load more equally.

I recognise the points raised by most hon. Members that the housing will potentially impact their constituencies. I appreciate that, but I will come back to the point made by the hon. Member for Cambridge. We must ensure that cities such as Oxford and Cambridge can compete not just in this country, but internationally. It is absolutely vital that the scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators there who are coming up with extraordinary cures, which will help people not just in this country but around the world, have the support to do that. At the moment, they do not have a workforce. The idea of this line is to deliver a workforce to Oxford and Cambridge, to use Milton Keynes and allow towns such as Winslow to grow further and get schools in place. In my view, it is a good example of rail delivering for the regional economy. I truly believe that it will do that but, as I say, I know the impacts and I understand them. I want to work with hon. Members across the piece on behalf of their constituents so that they feel more reassured, understand what is going on, get the detail and reassurance and, where needed, get compensation, and so that we make the project work for them as well. I will take one final intervention, then I will conclude.

[Mohammad Yasin]

The Minister mentioned a statutory consultation earlier that will take place from January next year. My constituents think that it is a tick-box exercise; they think that the decision has already been made. If the Minister wants to prove my constituents wrong, will he commit today—I made this point in my speech as well—that if the majority of people taking part in the statutory consultation go against these plans, he will ensure that he puts the proposals on hold? Let him prove my constituents wrong, if he can.

[Huw Merriman]

That is not a commitment I can give. As we know, those who tend to write back on consultations tend to be the most affected and are therefore the most troubled by the issue. That is not the way that we would run a consultation. We have of course set out a preferred line of route and the ambition that this railway can deliver, but I can give the hon. Member the assurance—I say this as a former Chair of a Select Committee—that consultations run in my Department under my name will be run properly. We will look at all the responses that come back and at where we can make improvements because residents have come up with really good ideas that will be a win for everyone. I expect to look at those closely and work with those suggestions. It will not be a tick-box exercise for as long as I am responsible for the project; I can give the hon. Member that assurance.

I will wrap up. As I stated, I encourage my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire and his constituents to continue to use the opportunities provided through the East West Rail company’s community events and its forthcoming consultation to provide feedback on the plans. I will conclude by thanking you, Sir Mark, and all those who have spoken with passion and expertise. I give my commitment that the Department for Transport will work closely with all the MPs who are represented and have concerns. I hope to assure those who have the most striking concerns and deliver for those who believe, like me, that East West Rail can be a power for good in the region.

[Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)]

I call Richard Fuller to wind up, cognisant of the fact that there is likely to be a vote at around 4 o’clock.

Oral Answers to Questions

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Thursday 8th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Afzal Khan (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)]

2. When he plans to make a decision on which projects will receive funding from the Access for All programme.

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

We are currently working with Network Rail to assess over 300 stations nominated for Access for All, and we aim to make a determination later in 2023 for funding beyond 2024. I hope to be in a position to announce the list of successful projects later this year, in anticipation of securing further funding in the following year.

[Afzal Khan]

I, too, associate myself with the Secretary of State’s comments about the rail crash in India.

The response from the Department for Transport has always been “later”, “soon” or “in due course”, so I ask the same simple question I have asked every rail Minister since 2017: will the hon. Gentleman come to Manchester to meet Levenshulme station users to talk about access and accessibility?

[Huw Merriman]

I have recently come back from a very positive trip to Manchester, where I met stakeholders. I have no doubt that I will be there again soon, and I would be very happy to call in on the hon. Gentleman and his campaign. We have delivered step-free access to more than 200 stations through Access for All, and we have made improvements at 1,500 other stations. I look forward to working with him and his project, which I will visit next time I am up.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

3. What contractual incentives his Department has agreed with train operating companies to encourage more people to use rail services.

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

Under the current national rail contracts, train operators earn a fee linked to their performance on addressing key passenger priorities, including punctuality, reliability, service quality and customer satisfaction, as well as revenue growth. While the new passenger service contract is developed, my Department is looking to introduce a stronger incentive for operators to grow rail patronage and revenue.

[Andrew Jones]

My hon. Friend knows my enthusiasm for open access services and the way they bring competition and innovation. That benefits customers by raising standards and therefore encourages more people to use our railways. Does he share my enthusiasm? If so, how will he be promoting open access services? May I gently remind him that I have written to him on this subject with some ideas to promote this way of driving more usage of our rail system?

[Huw Merriman]

I thank my hon. Friend for his letter, for the number of times we have met to discuss this issue and for his enthusiasm, which is shared not only by me, but by the Secretary of State. We saw the authorisation at the end of last year of Grand Union Trains to run services between London and Carmarthen, and we are committed to getting more open access operators, in order to encourage more operators to come to the market. My hon. Friend will know that during the recent rail strikes, open access operators such as Lumo were able to continue to operate. I am meeting the Office of Rail and Road, which is ultimately responsible for the rules in this area, to encourage it to grow open access.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister very much for his response. Encouraging more people to use rail services is about accessibility, the availability of trains, and park and ride schemes, so that people can park their cars and use the trains. Like him, I am a great believer in this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and we should always share our thoughts, discussions and ideas. Has he had any opportunity to share how he can do those things here in the UK with Translink and the Northern Ireland Assembly back home?

[Huw Merriman]

I am conscious that these matters are devolved in Northern Ireland but, as I have said before to all Members of the House, I am keen to learn from best practice and to ensure that all parts of the UK can learn from each other. It would be ideal if I could meet the hon. Gentleman so we can discuss these things and I can get his ideas, and if I could come over to visit the operators in Northern Ireland that he references and join him in that endeavour.

[Selaine Saxby (North Devon) (Con)]

4. What steps he is taking to support cycling and walking schemes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

5. What steps he is taking to ensure effective monitoring and oversight of HS2.

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

Comprehensive monitoring arrangements are in place for HS2, which all provide an up-to-date view of the status, challenges and opportunities facing the programme. We produce a range of public-facing updates, including the six-monthly update report to Parliament, the next iteration of which is due for publication shortly.

[Sarah Green]

A few weeks ago, my constituents woke to find a large sinkhole in a field directly above where the HS2 tunnel boring machines had been. This was predicted years ago by my constituents in evidence to this House. The Environment Agency’s response to the sinkhole appears to be little more than allowing HS2 contractors to mark their own homework, and it is the latest example of the Environment Agency’s inadequate response to questions that have been raised about HS2. It is vital that we can have faith in the organisation to undertake its statutory responsibilities. Will the Minister meet me and my constituents to hear directly about their concerns about the oversight of HS2?

[Huw Merriman]

It is certainly the case that the High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Act 2017 and the High Speed Rail (West Midlands – Crewe) Act 2021 specify the circumstances in which HS2 must seek the consent of the Environment Agency for construction. I know that, on this particular matter, the Environment Agency has been working with HS2 Ltd since that ground movement was discovered. I have also asked for it to be looked into. I will ensure that I get a separate report from the Environment Agency so that we have that independence, and when I have that, I will happily sit down with the hon. Lady and her constituents to take them through what has been found. She is absolutely right: we need to have independent scrutiny. I am absolutely fixed on that myself.

[Greg Smith (Buckingham) (Con)]

Two weeks ago, my constituents, the Hodges of Elm Tree farm in Steeple Claydon, discovered by accident while walking their dogs that HS2 Ltd was about to chainsaw an area of woodland on the farm that it had not paid for. There was no consultation. HS2 fenced off land that it does not own and then there were suspicious works in the middle of the night. When will my hon. Friend clamp down on this appalling, bullying behaviour from HS2 Ltd and its contractors?

[Huw Merriman]

I was very pleased to sit down very recently with my hon. Friend, people from HS2 Ltd and Buckinghamshire Council to go through some of the matters that were on his agenda. I know that this is the latest case that he has written to me about. I will look into the detail to ensure that we both have the correct facts, and the next time I am up near Steeple Claydon, which, as he knows, happens on a regular basis, we can perhaps take a look ourselves.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

I, too, convey my condolences to the families of the victims of the harrowing rail disaster in India.

The Government’s management of HS2 could hardly be worse: the budget has ballooned out of all proportion; we are already years behind on the launch of services; the merry-go-round of Ministers has created chaos; and the project at Euston station may never see the light of day. The six-monthly update to Parliament is already months late. We are none the wiser about the promised excellent alternative to the cancelled Golborne link, and we have been waiting years for the review into the best way to run HS2 to Leeds after this Government betrayed the north by scrapping the eastern leg. It appears that trickle-down economics has been replaced by trickle-down incompetence. Rather than the usual woolly ministerial responses of “coming soon to a station near you” and rather than responding to all of these failures, can the Minister answer just one simple question: when will the Leeds area study finally be published?

[Huw Merriman]

The ministerial merry-go-round goes round to a Merriman to listen to yet another long-winded effort from the hon. Gentleman, which eventually turns into a question. The reality is that we remain committed to HS2 and to line of route from London all the way up to Manchester. He talks about ballooning costs, but we have tried to look at the cost estimate and rephase HS2 as a result. He cannot have it both ways. I am committed to ensuring that the study comes out very soon; I met with my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to work on the matter and we work closely together. Our aim is to ensure that when that study comes out, it has the imagination in it to deliver properly all the ideas that we had always intended, and we will do so. We are committed to HS2 and to the investment and decarbonisation it will bring. I am sorry there has been a change of Ministers, but I can tell the hon. Gentleman that there will not be any changes any time soon.

[Matt Vickers (Stockton South) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to support bus services.

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) (SNP)]

9. What recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on delivering rail service improvements.

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

The Secretary of State and the Chancellor regularly meet to discuss rail services, and between them they are delivering unprecedented investment in rail infrastructure and reform of the industry. That includes delivering High Speed 2, core Northern Powerhouse Rail and East West Rail, as confirmed by the Chancellor at the autumn statement, while investing in the existing network across the country.

[Chris Stephens]

According to reports, Great British Railways is dead in the water thanks to a Treasury that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. We have seen the Yorkshire leg of HS2 dumped, Northern Powerhouse Rail stripped to the bone and HS2 terminating at Old Oak Common. Does the Minister agree that his colleagues in the Treasury are the biggest threat to the rail network and public transport across these islands?

[Huw Merriman]

I do not agree at all. The Secretary of State was quite clear in his Bradshaw talk that Great British Railways would be put forward. It is being put forward, and that Bradshaw address was endorsed by the Treasury and all parts of Government. We are absolutely committed. Later today I will have a discussion with all the team involved in rail reform, as I do on a weekly basis, as we look to transition this project from the Department to Great British Railways. Legislation delivers certain parts of it, but it does not deliver the project. We are delivering the project, and we will look to deliver the legislation when time allows it.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

I am sure the Chancellor of the Exchequer would be delighted if rail companies, some of which take a rather lax approach to ticket inspection, ensured that passengers had a valid ticket. I can give an example. I, along with seven other members of the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill Select Committee, went to Manchester on Tuesday. We paid an extortionate amount for our tickets. On the outward journey, no one inspected the tickets, nor did we pass through any barriers. If the Chancellor had more money, he could use it to improve rail services.

[Huw Merriman]

I thought my hon. Friend was about to tell us about an even more unfortunate incident, but I am glad that did not occur. We have increased the fine for those who are not using valid tickets to £100, which is reduced to £50 if it is paid on time. That increase demonstrates that we take this matter very seriously. Like him, I find it frustrating when I encounter journeys where the ticket is not checked either on the train or at barriers. I am determined to do more on that front; he is aware of that, and I encourage him to work with me as we do that.

[Mark Eastwood (Dewsbury) (Con)]

10. What steps he is taking to tackle speeding on roads.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

13. What comparative assessment he has made of the service delivered by Avanti’s rail timetable (a) now and (b) at the launch of that franchise.

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

Avanti began operating in December 2019 and within 16 weeks had transitioned on to an emergency measures agreement due to the covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the service provision has adjusted to align with demand and to balance taxpayer and passenger needs. I welcome recent performance improvements, with Avanti-caused cancellations down from 13.2% in January 2023 to 1.4% for the month of April.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michael Fabricant]

Take 2. Mr Speaker, you might disagree with the Minister’s answer and say that the reliability of Avanti is still not that good. Nevertheless, my question is about services from Lichfield Trent Valley station. I wonder when services can be restored whereby we have a decent service on Sundays, particularly early Sunday evenings, both down to Euston and to the north. That used to exist before covid, but those services are no longer on the timetable.

[Huw Merriman]

Normal service resumed after a passenger crossed the line of sight in front of my hon. Friend. Anything that deprives my hon. Friend, and indeed his constituents, of the ability to get down from Lichfield is something that I will have to look at and help. I am meeting the managing director of Avanti today, as it turns out. I will raise my hon. Friend’s point and happily write back to him and do my best.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

ScotRail, the Caledonian Sleeper, LNER and now TransPennine Express have all been nationalised. Increasingly, that is clearly the model that will deliver the reliable train services that customers need. What steps is the Minister taking to monitor the impact of nationalisation and whether it ought to be rolled out to the other franchises?

[Huw Merriman]

The steps I am taking on monitoring are looking at being able to put those operations back to the private sector. That is our preferred model. On TransPennine trains, I had a very good meeting with the interim chief executive, and I thank him for the work he is doing to stabilise. A plan is being looked at that will be delivered by next month, I believe. We currently have a situation where 50% of drivers are not trained up. What that tells us is that we need a lot more co-operation with the unions to get our drivers trained so that they can drive trains across all routes.

[Greg Smith (Buckingham) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

T2. As railway ridership returns to pre-pandemic levels, we need an efficient approach to railway finance. Can my hon. Friend say when he intends to reunite cost and revenue, so that that continues to drive up demand and provides an efficient method?

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

My hon. Friend is right to point out that we currently view costs as sitting with the DFT and revenue as sitting with the Treasury. This can make it harder to increase services, even when extra revenue can be assured, because costs at the DFT cannot increase. He can be assured that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and I spoke yesterday about how we can grow services and revenues with one profit and loss statement. I am also working with the train operators to amend their contracts, so they can be the parties that take the risk and get a greater share of the reward.

[Marion Fellows (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP)]

T5. Current regulations on hydrogen transport and storage are preventing world-leading renewables innovators such as the European Marine Energy Centre in Scotland from using surplus energy from tidal turbines to produce green hydrogen and export it off-island? Will the Department work with the Competition and Markets Authority to review these regulations and ensure that Scotland’s green industrial revolution is not hampered by Westminster’s regulatory dead hand?

--- Later in debate ---

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

With Luton Town being promoted to the premier league last week, many fans will be travelling by train, including from London clubs such as Arsenal. However, as the Minister knows, Luton station is sadly not accessible for many people with mobility issues, and while he has confirmed Access for All money is forthcoming to put lifts in the station by next year, what recent conversations has he had with the Sport Minister, the right hon. Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew), regarding accessibility of the rail network for travelling sports fans?

[Huw Merriman]

I congratulate Luton Town. As the hon. Lady knows, my family are big supporters; they have been there through the bad times and they will be there in the good ones as well. I also thank her for showing me around Luton station. I am committed to ensuring that Access for All is delivered at that station on time; any attempts to push back will not get signed off by me. On her campaign on the leaky roof on platforms 1 and 2, which she showed me, the work will start in August and complete in early 2024—I thank her for that.

[David Simmonds (Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner) (Con)]

T6. I have heard concerns from many constituents who are business users of Heathrow airport that it is now by some margin the most expensive airport in the world. Will my right hon. Friend consider looking at the regulatory model, bringing it more into line with other airports in the United Kingdom to ensure that its charges become much more competitive in future?

Rail Services: Carshalton and Wallington

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Wednesday 26th April 2023 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dame Maria. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) for securing this important debate on rail services in his constituency. He is right that, at every opportunity since I was appointed six months ago, he has got hold of me to champion the rights of his constituents. As he says, he is a constituency Member who has a lot of constituents who rely on rail. I am keen to work with him to make their service better.

I will start by setting the context, and talking about covid and changing demand. I am conscious that over the months, my predecessors and I have talked about the challenges, but I want to be more optimistic about the future for rail. I believe it has a great future. Over the past few months, there have been encouraging signs that passengers’ confidence in our railway is beginning to be restored. Nationally, passenger numbers show signs of improvement, and have come close on several occasions to levels seen in equivalent weeks in 2019. There has also been some improvement in the revenue generated across the industry; in some weeks, it averages around 90% of what was generated in that week in 2019.

I believe there is a great future for rail. It is the greener way to travel, and we have a railway heritage. The great people who work on it deserve our support and thanks. I am keen to entice as many people as possible back on to the network, so that we can continue to improve it. However, the pandemic has caused unprecedented change in passenger travel habits. Many people now adopt a hybrid approach, working from home some days of the week, and travelling at different times of the day to avoid the peaks. That means it is quite difficult to make like-for-like comparisons with 2019.

In the light of that, my Department has been working with operators to ensure that they provide rail services that respond to new passenger travel patterns, are fit for the future, and carefully balance cost, capacity and performance. As has often been remarked, the Government have earmarked £16 billion of funding for rail services since the start of the pandemic. That is money from the taxpayer. That is clearly unsustainable in the long term. I am sure you would agree, Dame Maria, that it is unfair to expect taxpayers to subsidise services that continue to exceed demand, and on which there are empty spaces, considering all the costs that over-provision would entail. We must ensure that services are balanced to meet the challenges.

In the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington, off-peak and peak passenger use remains below pre-pandemic levels. The September 2022 timetable change saw the Monday to Friday off-peak and weekend service from Carshalton to London Victoria via Mitcham Junction reduced from four trains per hour to two. Those changes were made in response to our requirement for operators to balance capacity and demand. The weekday peak service remained at four trains per hour. There are no timetable changes in May 2023, but the Epsom to London Bridge route via Carshalton Beeches and Wallington service will now predominantly run as a four or five-carriage formation off-peak on weekdays and weekends, reflecting demand. Weekday peak services will continue to operate with eight or 10 carriages, to meet higher demand.

Let me turn to the performance of the operator. After some significant challenges in December, which were associated with continued driver availability constraints and high levels of annual leave, I am pleased to see that cancellations have reduced significantly this year, especially in recent periods. GTR retains a considerable focus on continuing that improving trend and delivering the reliability that customers expect and deserve. My Department is working closely with GTR, and as my hon. Friend might expect, closely monitors levels of short-notice cancellations and service delays. Any decrease in performance in those areas can negatively impact the management fee that the train operator receives.

My hon. Friend rightly expects closer working between the operator and Network Rail. GTR and Network Rail collaborate on plans for future investment, maintenance and operation of the railway in the area. Indeed, since I have been appointed, I have insisted on having meetings with both Network Rail’s regional director and the head of the train operator, so that I can hear about their integration at first hand. The Department actively encourages closer working to improve the overall experience for passengers.

My hon. Friend rightly asked about infrastructure upgrades, including the Brighton main line upgrade programme. Of course, I understand the desire for an update on the Croydon area remodelling scheme, which seeks to address capacity constraints in the Croydon area. As he will be aware, following the autumn statement and the more recent Budget, we are reviewing the rail network enhancements pipeline, which is our programme for investment in future rail. In the economic context, it is more important than ever that the enhancement schemes that we take forward are affordable, and respond to the changes in demand for travel that I described. We are taking the proper time to ensure that schemes in the portfolio reflect those priorities. We will make the outcome public once the work is complete, thereby confirming the status of schemes across England and Wales, including the Croydon area remodelling scheme, so I ask my hon. Friend to give us a little more time before we update him.

My hon. Friend also asked about digital signalling, which I am very excited about. A programme is being rolled out on the London North Eastern Railway, on the east coast. I have seen the work that has been undertaken, and have worked alongside those who are delivering it. The efficiencies that it will bring are incredibly exciting. Network Rail is considering conversion to digital signalling on the Brighton main line as part of its renewals process for control period 7; I will bring him further news on that front as and when we have it.

My hon. Friend rightly talks about how we can help those with mobility issues to access the railway. We want a railway network that provides disabled people with improved opportunities for work and leisure travel. Indeed, we want to help all those who struggle to get on the railway, including parents with children in buggies, so that the railway, rather than the car, is a choice for them. The Department is very proud to support the Access for All programme, which has provided step-free accessible routes at over 220 stations, and smaller-scale access improvements at 1,500 more stations. All available Access for All funding has been allocated to projects until March 2024, but we are assessing over 300 nominations with Network Rail for stations for future awards. I am pleased to say that those include a nomination for Carshalton Beeches station, in anticipation of further funding becoming available beyond 2024. I expect to make an announcement regarding successful schemes later this year. I hope that my hon. Friend will bear with us as we assess his scheme, and I wish him well in that regard.

With respect to the larger-than-usual gap between the platform and the front of the train at Hackbridge station, which my hon. Friend mentioned, I can report that Network Rail is actively considering a full renewal of the platform, which would come in a few years hence. That would reduce the gap. I hope to bring him more news, and I thank him for bringing that to our attention. I can assure him that we are looking at the issue with Network Rail.

Finally—this is not in the rail portfolio, but it is right for me to respond for the Department for Transport—my hon. Friend made his views on the ULEZ expansion clearly known. I thank him for bringing the matter to Parliament and to the attention of the Government. All I would say is that if I were Mayor of London, which would be unlikely given that I am an East Sussex MP, I would not expand the ultra low emission zone, particularly given the financial impact on drivers and visitors to London, as my hon. Friend said. I will continue to use my role to work with him, and across Government, to ensure that the Mayor of London is held accountable for any decision that he makes. I am aware, as I know many Londoners and many people just outside London are—I am one of them, as I have mentioned—that cash barriers around London will have an impact on London as a whole and businesses in London. My hon. Friend makes the point well.

I hope that my hon. Friend has been reassured by the information that I have been able to give him, and that he can see the Government’s ambition to improve journeys for passengers and create a better, more modern railway industry that delivers good value for money. He is a real champion for his constituents, so I am sure that he will continue to engage with me, stop me to talk to me at every opportunity, and hold further debates. I thank him for this debate.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Huw Merriman Excerpts

Thursday 20th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

8. What steps his Department is taking to help deliver major rail infrastructure improvements in the north of England.

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

We remain committed to delivering the integrated rail plan, which, as the Chancellor confirmed in the autumn statement, includes HS2 and delivering the Northern Powerhouse Rail core network. We are also delivering on the multibillion-pound TransPennine route upgrade between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York, which represents a bigger central Government commitment than Crossrail in London.

[Dan Jarvis]

The Department set up the Northern Transport Acceleration Council to put rocket boosters on rail upgrades in the north, but three years on we are no closer to high-speed rail services between Sheffield and Leeds, there are no more trains on the Hope Valley line and NTAC has not met in full since May 2022. Does the Minister think that the appropriate governance arrangements are in place to enable effective decision making?

[Huw Merriman]

Yes, I do. The delivery speaks for itself in terms of what is being done. In recent months, I have been up to visit the team on the TransPennine route upgrade. With 76 miles of rail line, 23 stations, 6 miles of tunnels and 285 bridges or viaducts being upgraded, it is a vast engineering project. From next year, electric trains will be able to run between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge. I remind the hon. Member that there was a grand total of nine miles of electrification under the last Labour Government in 13 years. We are also delivering the Northumberland line, HS2 all the way to Manchester and various other projects. It is about delivery rather than talking.

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

When it comes to rail infrastructure improvements, the opening of a train station in Aldridge would be a huge boost, providing connectivity to the north of England and beyond. We are currently working on a business case. As soon as that comes forward, can we expect a speedy response from the Minister?

[Huw Merriman]

My right hon. Friend has met me to champion the cause of the new station at Aldridge. I can give her an assurance that as soon as that business case comes through, we will make a very fast decision. I will continue to work with her and Mayor Andy Street in delivering more improvements for her constituents.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

I am proud to support an application to reconnect Oswestry with Gobowen in my constituency, using an existing railway line that has been closed for a number of years, and we submitted an excellent bid in September. Can the Minister update me about when we will hear the outcome and, ideally, whether he will be supporting the bid to restore the connection between Oswestry and Gobowen?

[Huw Merriman]

The restoring your railway programme is delivering on eight lines, and another 32 lines have business cases or are at other stages of progress. I am happy to write to the hon. Lady and provide detail about the specific project she mentions, but in my view the restoring your railway programme has been a great success.

[Sara Britcliffe (Hyndburn) (Con)]

We have some vital projects going on across the north and in Hyndburn and Haslingden, such as the improvements at Accrington rail station; Lancaster County Council’s levelling-up fund bid, which—apologies, Mr Speaker—is focused solely on east Lancashire; and the bus service improvement plan. But other schemes are needed, such as Access for All at Oswaldtwistle and Church, work at Rishton station and the reopening of the Rawtenstall-to-Manchester line. Will the Minister meet me to discuss those projects? Will he visit Hyndburn and Haslingden to see why they are desperately needed?

[Huw Merriman]

I should be delighted to visit. Taking a leaf out of Michael Portillo’s book, I am hoping to do my own great British railway journeys over the summer. I very much hope to meet my hon. Friend while doing so. Since 2006, Access for All has delivered step-free access to 220 stations. The programme has been a great success, and I am pleased to say that the stations that my hon. Friend mentions are within the portfolio of the 300 stations that we are currently assessing.

[Mr Speaker]

You will need better coloured trousers if you are doing that.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

T6. Barrow and Sileby train stations in my constituency are currently in need of vital improvements to make them more accessible to passengers. Can the Minister please provide me with an update on when the Access for All scheme will reopen for applications and whether there are any other pots of funding available for accessibility improvements in the meantime?

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

The Department commissioned station nominations for Access for All in May of last year and is currently assessing more than 300 stations that were put forward. They include Barrow-upon-Soar and Sileby. I hope to be in a position later this year to announce the successful projects.

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

If the Minister’s Portillo-style tour of the railways takes him north of the border, will he reflect on the eye-watering track access charges paid by ScotRail and the eye-watering disruption caused to ScotRail services by problems with that track? Is it not just common sense that train tracks as well as train services should be fully devolved to Scotland?

--- Later in debate ---

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

In February and March, nearly a quarter of TransPennine Express services were cancelled, continuing a pattern that has been going on for more than a year. In the north, our economy and our residents are suffering as a result of TransPennine’s failures. Surely there cannot be any question of rewarding those failures with a contract extension.

[Huw Merriman]

Every week I review the figures and performance related to TransPennine Express. It has been said before that those figures are not good enough; there has been some improvement, but they are still not good enough. As the Prime Minister and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State have informed the House, the contract expires on 28 May 2023. We have made clear that all options are on the table and a decision will be announced in the House shortly.

[Rob Roberts (Delyn) (Ind)]

Recommendation 7 of Sir Peter Hendy’s Union connectivity review says that the north Wales main line should get good connectivity with HS2 and electrification. Given that the massive white elephant of HS2 no longer comes anywhere near north Wales, can the Minister confirm that at least the Government will be proceeding with the electrification of the north Wales main line and give us an idea of when that might happen?