Railways: Timetables Debate

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Department: Department for Transport

Railways: Timetables

Lord Naseby Excerpts
Tuesday 17th July 2018

(6 years, 3 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Sugg Portrait Baroness Sugg
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My Lords, I can certainly give the noble Lord the assurance that the inquiry will cover the role of both the department and the ORR itself. The inquiry’s terms of reference include both examination of the department’s approach and the role of the ORR as the independent regulator of Network Rail. The Department for Transport is of course fully co-operating with the inquiry, and we look forward to receiving its results. The panel indeed has members with experience of the rail industry. Michael Beswick had a full career in British Rail, and Mike Brown is the commissioner of Transport for London.

Lord Naseby Portrait Lord Naseby (Con)
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My Lords, while an inquiry is enormously welcome, will my noble friend recognise a practical issue on the Govia Thameslink Peterborough line, which I try to use? Even at the new, third attempt yesterday, the prime-time service was cancelled as early workers tried to get into the City of London. Surely the time has come for Her Majesty’s Government to find someone to liaise closely with Govia management, to make sure that it at least gets things moving properly on its next attempt. I very much hope it will be fired from the contract in any case.