Queen’s Speech

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 16th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bradshaw]

My Lords, I am going to talk about railway freight electrification, and in doing so I hope to cover six of the seven subjects that are featured on the screens. The economy of the country would benefit from a 10-year programme to electrify the bulk of our freight railways. Heavy lorries are at present dependent on diesel engines and there is no prospect of changing that in the immediate future. If our ports, factories and distribution centres were linked by an electric railway, this would be a means by which the logistics industry would use fewer heavy lorries for trunk haulage, thereby reducing pollution, congestion and accident rates. Of course, final distribution would require lorries, but they would probably be smaller ones.

The Government have made a brave start in providing an electric railway. The last Government produced nine miles of electric railway in 13 years. Since the coalition came to office, we have committed to 800 single-track miles of electrification, and I hope that we will add another 130 miles to that target very shortly. Most of this increase is focused on the passenger business. I would argue that the focus of electrification should embrace the potential for freight use and that the forthcoming review of the railway budget and plans, which must shortly be approved for the five years from 2015, should address this subject.

Railway electrification creates jobs in Britain. It cannot be imported. It is a long-term investment in the future. Strategically, it makes us less dependent on imported oil. Efficiency, the prosperity of the regions and strategy have not, up to the present, been reflected in the appraisal systems for new infrastructure investment used by government. These systems are excessively dominated by the practice of adding together a very large number of small time savings made by road users, many so small that they cannot usefully be taken into account by those who are deemed to benefit. This is changing because of the Government. I was told this afternoon that the system had its genesis in Barbara Castle’s day and continued to be used by the previous Government, despite my going to countless meetings at the Department for Transport.

The prospect of freight electrification has been brought a good deal closer by the development in Europe of an electric locomotive. It has a superior load capacity and, most importantly, it has a “donkey” diesel engine so that it can operate away from the main electric railway into depots, distribution centres and sidings where one does not want overhead electrification anyway. Locomotives would be purchased by freight companies provided that the Government paid attention to the diversionary routes and longer loops needed to accommodate heavier trains as well as electrifying the main lines. As this policy is developed by the Government, which I hope it will be, and the prospects of the rail freight industry are kept to the fore, we will be able to look forward within 10 years to having a prosperous, efficient freight railway that would create jobs in its building and that is not dependent on fossil fuels. It will bring benefits for many decades.

Later this year the Government will make a statement of the funds available—the so-called SOFA—after which the Rail Regulator will determine the improvements to our railways that will be made in the five years from 2015. I hope that the Government will take the opportunity presented to bring forward bold plans for the electrification of our freight railway, and I have every reason to suppose that they will. I am sorry to be a bit optimistic in a thoroughly pessimistic House, but I believe there is a real winner here.