High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill

Debate between Lord McLoughlin and Paul Farrelly

Monday 28th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr McLoughlin]

If I may, I will come in a little while to how I think places such as Coventry, Northampton, Rugby and elsewhere will benefit from the building of HS2. It is not just a matter of time; it is also a matter of the capacity available to the United Kingdom in its railway network. However, I will come to that.

[Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr McLoughlin]

I am happy to give way to colleagues, but I am aware of the number of people who want to speak in this debate, so I will be a bit cautious.

[Paul Farrelly]

I thank the Secretary of State for giving way. Clearly everywhere in Britain deserves better, but there are fears, as he will know, that great cities such as Stoke-on-Trent and Coventry will simply be bypassed. What meetings has he had, in particular with Stoke-on-Trent city council, in the past three months about either a stop on HS2 at Stoke, or a spur from HS2 along the route through Stoke station?

[Mr McLoughlin]

It is important to note that the Bill before us deals with the route from London to the west midlands, which does not go as far north as the hon. Gentleman describes. That route—basically, from the end of the line we are discussing today to Manchester and Leeds—is still out to consultation. Sir David Higgins did a report, “HS2 Plus”, which I very much welcomed. I accepted part of it—removing the HS1-HS2 link—but there are other parts, on which I am asking for urgent work to be done, that are not contained in the Bill before the House today.

High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill

Debate between Lord McLoughlin and Paul Farrelly

Wednesday 26th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr McLoughlin]

I know that my hon. Friend is concerned, as I am, to make sure that there are sufficient connections right across the country. We have not yet reached the consultation stage on phase 2. Part of the reason why we published phase 2, although it would have been easier not to do that, was to show our commitment to serving the north, right up to Manchester, Leeds and the east midlands. So I am pretty sure that I will be hearing a lot more from my hon. Friend and others on the question of where the station should be located—Crewe or Staffordshire.

[Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr McLoughlin]

I met a group of Members from—well, I was going to say Staffordshire—I met two Members from Stoke-on-Trent and one from Staffordshire, and I give way to him.

[Paul Farrelly]

I thank the Secretary of State for giving way and for his generous offer of coming to visit and see the lie of the land in north Staffordshire and east Cheshire. He will appreciate after our meeting that it is difficult for Members from north Staffordshire to support HS2 as it stands because it may very well, on the current modelling, reduce the number of direct trains from Stoke-on-Trent from 31 a day to just three a day. This knock-on issue is relevant to people from Stockport all the way down to Coventry, as he will see from the amendment. What assurances can he give that the west coast main line in the future, after HS2, will not become the ghost train line running a skeleton service, as the projections currently suggest?

[Mr McLoughlin]

I met the hon. Gentleman yesterday along with two of his colleagues, and I can assure him that this is about providing extra capacity, not reducing services. I want to consider the points that he and two of his hon. Friends made to me yesterday along the same lines. I do not recognise where he gets his figure of three services per day compared to the present level of service. Of course, that will be part of the consultation and one of the aspects that we will examine fully as we move forward.

West Coast Main Line

Debate between Lord McLoughlin and Paul Farrelly

Monday 15th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr McLoughlin]

I hope we see no delays in investments as a result, and I am always grateful to my hon. Friend, who is always trying to be helpful.

[Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

FirstGroup’s bid included a £190 million guarantee, which would in no way have been large enough to compensate the Government if its optimistic bid had failed to deliver the goods—in fact, it gave a strong financial incentive to walk away. Has the Secretary of State yet understood why that basic feature did not set alarm bells ringing before the bid was announced? Will he ensure that future contracts contain no financial incentives for bidders to walk away?

[Mr McLoughlin]

The time that bidders walked away was under the previous Government, when the operators on the east coast main line did so. There are lessons to be learned. I shall not prejudge what the inquiries might tell us, but I am looking forward to their results and hope that we can then move on based on a safer footing.