Stockton and Darlington Railway: 200th Anniversary

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

There is a Celtic competition between the Penydarren tramway of, I think, 1814 and its originator, Trevithick, who came from Camborne. Personally, I side on the Cornish side of that argument. The more serious point the noble Lord raised is of course a matter of national finance and one for my Treasury colleagues and the Chancellor.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)]

My Lords, will the Minister recall that the steam engine was invented by a Scot, James Watt? I declare my interest as chairman of the Steam Boat Association and raise the serious point that we are very dependent on heritage railway in our country for tourism. The decision to close the last remaining coal mines means that coal has to be imported at great expense for that purpose. What are the Government going to do about it? Is this not an example of net-zero ideology harming our economy?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I am certainly willing to give credit to another Celtic nation for the invention of the steam engine. The matter of coal is, of course, a much wider question than coal for heritage railways. I would ask the noble Lord to look at an aerial photograph of the last Welsh opencast coal mine and the hideous blot on the landscape that it represents, and also at the huge damage that coal and the coal-fired equipment has done to the environment and the atmosphere. It is a factor in the continued provision of heritage railways and, as he says, steamboats, that there should be some coal. There is some coal, and I can write to him, if he wants, about the means by which coal substitutes can be procured rather than reopening coal mines.