King’s Speech

Lord Faulkner of Worcester Excerpts

Wednesday 20th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Lab)]

My Lords, I start by declaring my railway interests, as I will be speaking a lot about the Railways Bill in my remarks this evening. All these interests are unpaid. They include presidency of the Heritage Railway Association and of the Cotswold Line Promotion Group. I am a member of the Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board and the National Railway Museum’s advisory board, and I chair the Great Western Railway’s stakeholder board.

I want to commend all those who are making such a success of Railway 200, the 200th anniversary of the opening of the world’s first passenger railway between Stockton and Darlington in 1825. It is rightly being celebrated throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and allows us all to celebrate just how much railways have contributed to a nation’s happiness, health and prosperity. Railway 200’s exhibition train, which is called “Inspiration”, is conducting its nationwide tour and will be doing so until this summer. If noble Lords have not visited yet, I urge them to do so. It is likely to be at a heritage railway close to where they live. Curated in partnership with the National Railway Museum, the exhibition carriages of “Inspiration” are a great celebration of what the railway has done for everyone.

I congratulate my noble friend Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on the part he has played in making Railway 200 such a success, his commitment to the heritage sector and, most important of all, his determination to ensure that we as country appreciate and stand behind our railways. My noble friend and I were invited to join the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the Talyllyn Railway this week, but our duties here made it impossible for us to get away to north Wales. I am sure he will want to join me in sending our congratulations to that wonderful little railway.

I have spoken before in your Lordships’ House about the huge contribution that heritage railways make to the regional economy, to tourism and to the preservation of engineering skills. I again thank noble Lords in all parts of the House and the Government for supporting my efforts and those of the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, to make it legal, through an amendment to the Employment Rights Act, for young people to work and volunteer on heritage railways. I am told that that is already making a great difference. It is a small change but an important one.

The value of a national rail system cannot be exaggerated. They have long played a vital part in shaping regional economies and communities, bringing a sense of community cohesion as they transport people from A to B. They enable people to get to work, school and university, to see friends and family, to go shopping and to go on holiday. There is so much more that they could be doing, particularly in improving the environment, by attracting much more heavy freight off the roads and on to the railway. I know my noble friend the Minister has already received representations from the rail freight sector and been given practical examples of what could usefully be done. I appreciate that the debate on the gracious Speech is not the right place for discussing detailed amendments to the Railways Bill, but I hope the Minister will be able to give an assurance that he and his officials are studying carefully the freight industry’s representations on matters such as access arrangements for non-Great British Railways operators and the freight growth target set for Great British Railways.

I will finish on a positive note. On Monday, direct services between Bristol and Oxford, calling at Bath, Chippenham and Swindon, were introduced by GWR and launched by the Secretary of State. The service runs every two hours and was made possible only because of the capacity improvements that Network Rail has made at Oxford station. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that this is exactly the type of thing we should be seeing train operating companies and GBR doing in future? They are responding to market demand, looking at new routes and growing revenue to help reduce taxpayer subsidy. It is also important to demonstrate that the rail network is not totally London-centric, and the success of this service will enable new housing opportunities and new job opportunities. It is connecting incredibly popular tourist destinations in Oxford and Bath, and will have superb connections to East West Rail when that opens for passenger service. I am sure that there are many other examples of where we can grow the railway in future, and I look forward to my noble friend’s speech.