Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 7th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bradshaw (LD)]

My Lords, this Bill was forecast in the Labour Party’s manifesto. We have no quarrel with the need to take drastic action to make the railways work better for passengers, freight business and the taxpayer. State-run organisations can be run efficiently, and we will help to see that they do; we will also help see that, in the case of the railways, passengers and freight users are the main focus of policy.

The Railways Act 1993 left the railway with an expensive and bureaucratic organisation where too much of the effort was focused on blaming others—as instanced by Keith Williams in his original report—for shortcomings in service provision and a regulatory structure which, in common with other privatised industries, was not fit for purpose. We hope it is the Government’s intention to review the role of the road and rail regulator, which has concentrated its efforts on promoting competition and has neglected most of its other statutory duties. The basis for calculating abstracted revenue by open access operators has not been sufficiently challenged, and the regulator’s responsibility for safety has departed without sufficient regard for the widely accepted as low as reasonably practicable principles.

The legal structure devised by the rail regulator gives access rights to operators, protected in law, which prevent the optimisation of the timetable. While it is acceptable that freight has protected status, it should be incorporated in a rational timetabling process optimising scarce infrastructure resources. In my opinion, reform of the regulatory process is essential to the success of GBR. Without control of the regulatory arrangements, it will continue to be the case that major investments—like the £4 billion being spent on the east coast route—will not achieve improvements.

It has become apparent that no one can make timetable decisions that produce faster journey times, as there are so many conflicting paths and no rational ways of resolving these conflicts. As a result, there have been no major revisions to the timetable since 1991. A revised timetable for all routes would give priority to London-bound services, after which would come interregional services and then local services. That would be easily understood and can be built into a co-ordinated whole, giving good connections throughout the railway to other rail and bus services. The control organisation supervising railway operations needs overhauling to eliminate much duplication and end the focus on the blame game, changing it to one that concentrates on failures.

Complaints are made about the rolling stock companies. We do not expect these to be taken into public ownership, although, in common with other state-owned assets, they were sold far too cheaply and largely debt free to an immature market. However, allegations about fixing the market have not been upheld and, with fresh entrants into the business, there is every reason to believe that the market will become more competitive. The rolling stock companies should have a place at the table when designs are developed, as well as the supply side of the industry and some representation from goods designers, as was the case with British Rail.

We await with interest what the Government will propose for fares and charges. We want our railway to be busier. For this to happen, we need to charge cheaper fares and provide more capacity. In many cases our trains are too full, to the extent that people avoid using them, which cannot be right environmentally or economically. We want our railways to offer a “turn up and go” capability, not one that charges high fares to travellers who have to make urgent journeys at the last minute and who face having to stand because insufficient accommodation is available.

There are a few more issues on which we want clarity from the Government, in the Minister’s reply or in subsequent legislation. I know that the Government have in their possession proposals for a modest programme of infill electrification, which would mainly benefit freight but would also bring benefits on the passenger side. This should include modest extensions to the existing third rail systems which the previous Government allowed to be halted.

Other proposals would show that the Government are looking to the future, such as electrifying the Midland main line; the work on the Felixstowe to Nuneaton route that is so sorely needed in the freight industry; and the provision of a flat crossing at Newark. This, together with the re-signalling now taking place and the elimination of wasteful paths for five-coach trains that should be formed of 10 cars at least as far as Doncaster, would create at least two and possibly three more paths each hour on the east coast main line, as it needs to build on its place as the premier route between London, the north-east and Scotland. This would not need an immediate cash handout, but the design work and preparations in the supply industries would be immediate and would let the railways know that the Government are listening to them.

Lastly, I turn to the decision made by the last Prime Minister in respect of HS2. There is simply insufficient capacity in the system to plug the gap left by this announcement, and early clarification of the Government’s position on this is necessary.

We will hear a number of maiden speeches, to which I look forward, including one from the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, who is an expert on transport. I hope we shall listen to them all.

Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 21st October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Pidgeon (LD)]

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 40, which is focused on the issue of policing and safety on the railways. I welcome the Minister to his new role; I look forward to working with him, asking him many questions and debating the issues, as we have done elsewhere over the last 16 years.

As noble Lords have interrogated this legislation, safety has been a feature of our deliberations. However, safety is not just about the infrastructure and rolling stock; it is about the safety of passengers and staff on our railways. This amendment would require the Secretary of State to report to Parliament on the impact of this Act on the British Transport Police. The British Transport Police provides a policing service to Network Rail, rail and freight operators and their passengers and staff throughout England, Wales and Scotland. It is also responsible for policing other parts of our transport network including the London Underground, the Glasgow Subway, the Tyne and Wear Metro, the West Midlands Metro, the Docklands Light Railway, London trams and even the cable car in London.

What is different about the British Transport Police is that it is primarily funded by the railway industry, not the public purse, and it sits within the Department for Transport, not the Home Office. The train operating companies, Network Rail, other operators and Transport for London, through either police service agreements or different funding agreements, pay for the British Transport Police—its latest budget shows annual funding of around £416 million.

On these Benches, we are concerned about two specific areas. First, we are worried about the impact on policing the network, and the safety of staff and passengers as they use and work on our railways, as these changes to franchising take place. Secondly, we are deeply concerned about the potential significant funding gap, which had not previously been identified, as a result of taking public ownership of the railways. I hope the Minister will be able to provide assurance in this area and explain the Government’s thinking about the future funding of the British Transport Police.

Furthermore, there is the issue of the British Transport Police Authority itself and how it is structured. It consists of 15 members, often with railway expertise from the train operating companies, who ensure value for money for the policing service they provide across the network. It is not clear how this will be structured going forward to ensure the right level of challenge and independence from the Department for Transport, given the department will now be effectively running the railway in public ownership. I hope the Minister can reassure noble Lords that the funding and oversight of the British Transport Police has been considered as part of this legislation, and that he will respond to our specific points.

My noble friends will speak to our Amendments 41 and 6 regarding freight operators and the impact of this legislation on their operation.

[Lord Bradshaw (LD)]

My Lords, on the issue of freight, the intention should be that the freight service is given dedicated paths in the timetable. The timetable is the key to the whole issue. For freight to have a dedicated path, we need to use the paths that are available, or potentially available, to the best advantage.

To take the east coast main line as an example, it is possible to run quite a lot more trains along that line if the open-access operations are run by 10-coach trains which are divided en route. If the investment in the east coast main line is carried through, and if, for example, the Newark flat crossing is removed, I am sure we can get at least three, possibly four, more paths in every hour. The removal of the Newark flat crossing would greatly enhance the ability of freight to run inland from Immingham.

The Government have proposals before them to undertake very small pieces of electrification which would better connect freight services to the electrified network. They also have proposals, which the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, has mentioned, to get the route between Felixstowe and Nuneaton working properly. That is an appalling railway—I have ridden across it on a locomotive—and it inflicts enormous delays on freight trains. If there is any money to spend, a good deal of virtue would come from spending on enhancing the freight network and creating more paths on the east coast main line, because they are scarce and very valuable.

Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 6th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Moylan (Con)]

My Lords, if I may respond to what the Minister said, he is asking us to make a huge bet on what he refers to as the benefits of public ownership. Most of us who are of a certain age can remember public ownership, and we remember that the benefits were few and far between. He is asking us to take a leap of faith that this time round it is going to be different, but he will not—

[Lord Bradshaw (LD)]

The noble Lord has spoken as if public ownership is something evil. I remember, when I worked on the west coast main line, that 90% of the trains ran on time. That is a far cry from what is now the case. It was so different from what he is saying that he really should take a history lesson in what was right about British Rail.

[Lord Moylan (Con)]

My Lords, I made no reference to good or evil. I am talking about operational efficiency. I am sure the noble Lord is correct in drawing attention, as has happened several times today, to the deficiencies of the current operation of the west coast main line, but other noble Lords have rightly drawn attention to the fact that there are private sector operators in this country currently operating with the efficiency levels that he refers to, and better—so the private sector has a lot to be said for it as well.

The fact is that public ownership is something about which the country largely breathed a sigh of relief when we moved away from it—rightly or wrongly, whatever the history behind that might have been—and every other European country over the last few years has moved away from exclusive public ownership operation. Even train companies such as Deutsche Bahn, which stood once at the pinnacle of public regard, are now something of a joke in their own country.