Weymouth to Waterloo Rail Line

Debate between Michael Tomlinson and Richard Drax

Tuesday 15th December 2015 Westminster Hall

[Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the Weymouth to Waterloo rail line.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Moon, and a great pleasure to see the Minister here, whom I regaled, for half an hour of her precious time, only about two hours ago, so I thank her for that. It is very nice to see her in her place.

Welcome to a number of colleagues, and to a right hon. colleague, my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Mr Letwin); it is a particular pleasure to see him here. I will talk for about 10 minutes, then another colleague would like to say something, and I think others want to intervene. After that, the Minister will obviously respond.

I start by saying that Dorset is one of the most beautiful and unspoiled counties in the country, with a Jurassic and world heritage coastline that is the envy of the world. That combination of sea, coast and countryside attracts millions of visitors and tourists. At the height of the summer, the road system struggles to cope and frequently does not. That is not to say that we are all crying out for a motorway—indeed, the lack of one is part of the attraction. However, we simply cannot sit back and depend on seasonal jobs, which do not provide a secure enough career and future prospects for many of our constituents. We need to attract investment into the area, and rail connectivity is key. The lack of it already makes things very hard for those who live and work in Dorset, thwarting many ambitious plans.

Take Portland port, which is a growing port: commercial road traffic there is expected to treble in the years ahead, and the number of visiting cruise ships continues to rise, dropping off countless thousands of customers, who then go into all our constituencies. In the centre of my constituency, a newly announced enterprise zone on the outskirts of Wool is expected to generate thousands of jobs—so too, hopefully, are our expanding marine and engineering industries, new museums and tourist attractions.

For all those to work, we need to improve our infrastructure, and with little scope for more roads, for reasons I have explained, rail is the only option. There has been a railway line to Weymouth for 148 years. The terminus, originally designed by one of Brunel’s assistants, sits only yards from the resort’s golden beaches. The line was decisive in opening up the town, which was first made fashionable by George III and his followers in 1789, hence the façade. It is not hard to imagine the scene as the early tourists enjoyed the waters from their wheeled bathing huts. The same train continued to the Channel Islands ferry terminal at the mouth of Weymouth harbour, winding its way through the town, led by a man waving a red flag to clear the way. Times have changed, but the significance of rail travel has not, and if we are to ensure that both Weymouth and Portland can thrive today as they did back in the 19th century, some imaginative thinking is required.

Two trains an hour serve Weymouth from Waterloo. Typically, they take three hours to travel only 130 miles, so the time is considerable. There is an infrequent and sporadic service to Yeovil and Bristol. With the aim of speeding up trains to Weymouth, I began to investigate the various possibilities with South West Trains. We came up with three options. The first was to run a faster, third train in each direction on the current route via Bournemouth and Southampton, but that would require substantially more power, platforms and rolling stock, making it expensive and, due to the bottleneck in the New Forest, essentially unworkable. Even if multimillions of pounds were spent on new electricity substations, the increasing number of passengers from projected new housing developments would give any franchisee little flexibility to drop a station in order to generate faster journey times on a line that is already run to capacity.

The second option is to make one of the two hourly London trains “fast” and the other “slow.” However, the negative impact on intermediate stations effectively rules that out. The third option is via Yeovil, and I and many others—not least the colleagues sitting around these tables—believe that that is a goer. With much of the infrastructure in place, it is more affordable and has major advantages. It would: reduce the journey time from Weymouth to London to two hours and 25 minutes; provide more room for passengers on the existing line through Bournemouth and Southampton; expand capacity and business opportunities across a number of south-western constituencies; connect Dorset to Heathrow—I sorely hope that the planned expansion there eventually gets the go-ahead—and take up some of the ample capacity on the Weymouth-to-Bristol line.

The proposal would mean an additional service to Waterloo via Yeovil and Salisbury, with reduced stops, calling at Weymouth, Dorchester West, Yeovil Junction, Salisbury and London.

[Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (Con)]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way and for securing this important debate. Does he agree that if the new route via Yeovil goes ahead, it still has the potential to benefit my constituents, who neighbour his, by increasing capacity on the trains, hopefully thereby increasing rail use and relieving a great deal of pressure on our roads, particularly in and around Wareham?

[Richard Drax]

I entirely agree. As my hon. Friend well knows, the charity railway, which will be linked from Swanage to the main line through Wareham, will also play its part, which is very good news. And yes, that will relieve pressure greatly on the line through his constituency. I have also heard today that he and others are looking at a new metro service running between Christchurch and Wareham, or something of that nature. In itself, that will take up more capacity on the line, which makes my plan less workable, although his constituents will be able to travel backwards and forwards more efficiently and more ably, which is very good for him and others.

The work needed for the third proposal would be relatively minimal—certainly less than would be required on the Bournemouth-to-Southampton line. That work includes some short stretches of new track, enhancements to platforms at Weymouth, Yeovil and Salisbury, an increase in the speed limit on parts of the line, and the extension of a footbridge. I—or we, I should say—believe that none of those is impossible.

Navitus Bay Wind Farm

Debate between Michael Tomlinson and Richard Drax

Monday 15th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Richard Drax]

I hear the hon. Gentleman, but I will not go down that road because I have only a short amount of time. I am grateful to him for intervening.

Before I move on to the unprecedented opposition to the Navitus Bay proposal, it is important to point out that most of the objections to it are due to its size and its proximity to Dorset’s Jurassic coast. Offshore wind generation is accepted as part of our renewables commitment and is already established in places such as the North sea. The problem with Navitus bay is that it is too big and too close.

The development will desecrate one of the most beautiful parts of our country. The Jurassic coast is made up of about 60 miles of the most highly designated coastline in England, including its only UNESCO natural world heritage site, a national park, two areas of outstanding natural beauty and two heritage coasts. A more sensitive site is hard to imagine, yet at its nearest points the wind farm will sit only 9 miles off Swanage, 10.9 miles from the Isle of Wight and 13.3 miles from Bournemouth. Those distances are all inside the 13.8 miles that was recommended by the offshore energy strategic environmental assessment in 2009. Furthermore, 70% of the pylons in the primary allocation will fall within that limit. The so-called mitigation option is little better, with the nearest turbine located 11.5 miles off Swanage.

Why on earth would anyone choose this site? Cost is surely the answer. As it is close to shore and in shallow water, the potential savings must run into millions of pounds when compared with a site further out to sea. However, the area is popular with the sailing, boating and diving communities, and is home to an array of wildlife from migratory birds to harbour porpoises, bottlenose dolphins and, of course, fish. On land, a 40 metre swathe will be carved through the New Forest to enable the wind farm to plug into the national grid.

In addition, studies have pointed to negative environmental impacts, such as rain and radar shadows, and light flicker and sound, including an ultra-low-frequency hum. Project director Mike Unsworth admits that, under the right atmospheric conditions, the rotating blades could be heard onshore. Most significantly, in 2001, UNESCO designated the Jurassic coast as England’s sole natural world heritage site of outstanding universal value.

[Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (Con)]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for securing this debate. It is good to see so many hon. Friends from across Dorset here in support of my hon. Friend. Does he agree that this issue affects the whole of Dorset, including the local authority areas of East Dorset, Poole and Purbeck, which fall in my constituency? The tourism industry across the whole of our county will be affected if this goes ahead.

[Richard Drax]

I entirely concur with my hon. Friend. I will flesh out the very point he raises shortly.

The UNESCO designation inscription states that world heritage sites should be

“transmitted, intact and unchanged, to future generations.”

UNESCO’s director of the world heritage centre, Kishore Rao, on advice from a UN advisory body, has warned of the wind farm’s impact, saying:

“from being located in a natural setting that is largely free from man-made structures to one where its setting is dominated by man-made structures”,

this, he added,

“could affect the long term viability”

of the site and therefore, ultimately, its designation.