High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill

Oliver Colvile Excerpts

Monday 28th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mary Creagh]

Absolutely; people have a tendency to work it out all by themselves. Particularly in this era of the internet and smartphone apps, I am sure that people will be pretty cute about figuring out the best railway and greenest journey that they can make. I do not share the scepticism of the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) about whether people will shift. However, she also mentioned ancient woodland, and HS2 should set the gold standard in environmental mitigation and in promoting plant and animal life along the route. We will hold the Government and HS2 to account to reduce its environmental impact.

The Secretary of State mentioned climate resilience, and we saw in the devastation of the Great Western main line at Dawlish and the flooding near Maidenhead in February the direct impact of climate change on our transport networks, and on communities and businesses in the south-west and Wales.

[Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Con)]

I will support the Government tonight in the Lobby. The hon. Lady talks about the north and London and so on, but does she recognise that this whole debate has very little impact on the west country? [Interruption.] We have just had the most devastating effects through losing our railway line, and it is important that while we proceed we ensure that the west country is not forgotten in the whole story, so that we can deliver growth too.

[Mary Creagh]

Absolutely. [Interruption.] I pay tribute to the Network Rail staff whom I visited out by Reading and who worked around the clock in difficult circumstances to open the route—

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[Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Con)]

May I make it clear that I am willing to support the Government on this HS2 proposal although I have some reservations? I do so, however, in the firm belief and hope that the Government will invest in south-west trains and in the road infrastructure. Plymouth is the 15th largest city in the UK, and for decades it and the south-west have been badly deprived of transport infrastructure. The M5 still stops at Exeter and on occasions it takes at least four hours to get down to my constituency. No improvements have been made over the years to the railway infrastructure; indeed, I would suggest that it is similar to how it was left by Brunel. I remind the House that in 1938 an Act of Parliament was passed to put a new train line underneath Haldon Hill. Unfortunately, Mr Hitler decided he was going to invade the country and that made it very difficult.

I have campaigned on this issue for 15 years both as a candidate and as an MP, but I also want to ensure that we have more three-hour train journeys to and from Plymouth to London, and to ensure that some trains get to Plymouth before 9 am. I thank my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Transport and the Prime Minister for getting our railway up and running before Easter. That, I have to say, has been a major fillip. There is, however, real concern about whether Plymouth, and the Devon and Cornwall peninsular, will receive investment. If my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State wishes to help to dispel that concern by announcing how much money he will be putting into rail infrastructure, that would be very helpful.

I thank the Government for making improvements to Reading station and I welcome the review of the five available options. All the proposals will be useful in boosting south-west regional growth. Just in case the Government are not aware of how we feel, I will be launching a petition in the next day or so. In short, I will be supporting the Government on HS2, but in return I want a resilient railway line that is not going to be swept away by H₂0.