Road and Rail Projects

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that question. The truth is that we knew at the time of the cancellation of HS2 phase 2a that the original purpose of a new railway, originally all the way to Manchester, was to enhance capacity. We knew at the time that phase 2a was cancelled that there were no alternatives and, therefore, that the railway would be constrained north of Birmingham, as it currently is. The Government are thinking about what might be done about that, but until HS2 is built to Birmingham, the Office of Rail and Road has told applicants for open access on the west coast main line that there is simply no space left—and there is no space left. The ORR has had to consider its duty to promote reliability on the railway and encourage Network Rail to improve reliability, and it would be pretty hard to do so if at the same time it approved applications that did not have appropriately guarded train paths to achieve it.

We will see what happens on the east coast main line, where several applications are currently being considered by the ORR as an independent adjudicator. The truth is that one reason for ETCS on the south end of the east coast main line is that the east coast main line is largely full too. I draw the House’s attention to earlier discussions that we have had about the new east coast main line timetable, which has been long in coming and in the end had to be decided by me as the Rail Minister because it was so difficult to get agreement between the parties that had train paths and rights to train paths in order to produce a satisfactory timetable. The truth is that my noble friend is right: on both main lines there is a shortage of capacity, the solution to which can be achieved only through further investment.

[Lord Cryer (Lab)]

My Lords, it is widely recognised that rail privatisation has been a spectacular disaster, which is possibly why around 80% of British people, according to most polls, support rail renationalisation—including millions of Conservative voters, who the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, clearly thinks are closet Marxists planning the state takeover of everything. I have my doubts.

My noble friend has touched repeatedly on the fundamental problem with the rail network—a lack of capacity, in which we have not seen any real expansion for decades. At the same time, road congestion is costing billions to the economy, not just in passengers but more in freight. If there was some movement from road to rail for freight, it would have an enormous economic impact. An average freight train can take around 70 to 80 HGV journeys away from the road network, easing that congestion. This document is a step in the right direction but, in the longer term, a major expansion of the rail network will serve the country well into the distant future.

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for those observations. He is right that the Government would encourage more freight on railways—there was a Question on that very subject at Oral Questions this afternoon—which is why they are committed to a long-term rail freight increase target. He will be pleased to know that rail freight grew by 5% last year. It is important when determining timetables for the railways to leave capacity in the right places and at the right times for freight traffic to increase while not constraining the desire to operate a better passenger service. That is one of the reasons why Great British Railways, when it is established, will have control of the timetable to make those best possible judgments, which are not currently made for the railway as a whole despite the fact that it is so obviously a whole network. That is why the public support the Government’s position on managing the railway as a whole network.