Rail Investment

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Thursday 17th February 2011 Westminster Hall

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Owen, as it is to follow the Chair of the Transport Committee, the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Mrs Ellman), whom I hold in great esteem.

It is also a great pleasure to discuss the Transport Committee’s report on rail priorities. It is not one that I have any personal responsibility for, as I had not been elected to Parliament when it was drawn up. None the less, priorities for rail investment is a worthy topic for debate, not least because of the amount of public money that our railways consume. We have a democratic duty to ensure that that investment is properly apportioned.

For me, the sacred text in this area remains the Eddington report, which the previous Government commissioned and which included several pertinent points. In particular, when prioritising investment Sir Rod Eddington stressed that we needed to focus on three main areas, namely congested urban areas and travel-to-work areas, key inter-urban corridors and key international gateways and hubs. All three were coming under pressure from increasing congestion and the associated unreliability.

As the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside pointed out, a lot has changed since her Committee’s report was published. We have a new Government—we even have a new MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys. We have also had welcome confirmation from the Government of the importance of infrastructure investment. Amid all the talk of spending reductions, I was pleased to learn that many of the feared cuts that we were all told were coming down the line did not materialise and that important projects such as electrification are continuing, which is welcome. It is also true that the issue of high-speed rail has assumed a much greater importance in our political discourse, and I will discuss that issue in more detail later.

One aspect of policy making has been diminished since the election, which is regrettable—maybe this is a misinterpretation on my part; I do not know. As a Member of Parliament for the north of England, I recognise that regional development agencies had their faults and their problems. They were by no means perfect organisations, and they needed immediate reform. I agree with the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside that one area where they made a contribution was the quality of the transport planning that they provided through the Northern Way project. I have had the pleasure of meeting representatives of that project time and time again. The quality of the work that they have done was one reason why the Government’s infrastructure announcements for the north of England went down so well, and I have genuine concerns about the quality of policy making if the Northern Way does not find a niche within the new Government structures.

The north is different, and this is not just special pleading or the usual carping about London getting all the transport money. We know that there is a substantial productivity gap between the north and the south of England. I recognise that London is our national capital—a global capital, if anything—and that it needs substantial public investment, but we cannot overlook the fact that the north has, over many years, been getting a raw deal rather than its fair share.

The hon. Member for Newport West (Paul Flynn) suggested earlier today that I read his book on how to be a Back Bencher. I have learned one essential truth so far, which is that it is only when an MP is bored with talking about an issue that he knows he has got his point across. With some trepidation, therefore, I shall discuss the northern hub.

When the report was first published, the northern hub was still the Manchester hub, and I take some pleasure in having played a role in getting it renamed, if only to reflect the fact that it benefits the whole of the north of England and the north of Wales from Anglesey to Newcastle. The northern hub is not only a building in Manchester, but a series of discrete projects that unlock the potential of the rich, dense rail network that exists across the north of England, and it is vital that it goes ahead. I welcome all the positive indications that we have had so far from the Minister. Every time I have bored her and the Secretary of State by asking about it, I have got a nod and a wink that it will be in control period 5, and I ask once again for that to be restated.

We have to realise that whenever we discuss inter-city travel in the UK, for those of us who are London-centric or come down here all the time, north-south journeys matter, but for business men in my constituency and across the north of England, east-west journeys are just as important. People in Manchester occasionally need to go across the Pennines to Leeds and even further to Newcastle. Sometimes, my constituents want to go to the north Wales seaside, because they have had enough of Blackpool—surely not. East-west travel matters, and the Council for the Protection of Rural England backs better trans-Pennine rail links, although I am not sure whether it would do so with HS2.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

I strongly agree with the hon. Gentleman’s view about east-west links being equally important. Does he agree that it is vital to keep the Woodhead tunnel for future transport use and not let it be poisoned by having electricity cables put through it? The previous Government arranged for that to happen, and I hope that the present Government will continue to preserve the tunnel for future transport use.

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[Paul Maynard]

As with all matters relating to rail freight, I bow to the hon. Gentleman’s superior knowledge, and would not dare trespass on it for fear of being shown up as an ignoramus.

I shall discuss HS2, because it is so controversial and cannot be avoided. The arguments are difficult, and whichever side of the argument someone is on their policy must be evidence based, because it is only through an evidence base that the politics of the proposals can start to be addressed. I recognise that there are arguments on both sides. As a northern Member of Parliament, I see immense potential benefits, but I am sure that if I were an MP in an area affected by the proposed route, I would have enormous concerns. It is, however, dangerous to base our argument solely on a few simplistic notions. Building the railway will not in itself heal the north-south divide, and it is foolish to base the argument on that soundbite alone. It is equally dangerous to base it on saying that there will somehow be magnificent environmental benefits by domestic aviation being rendered unnecessary. At the moment, we cannot see even one or two years ahead in our domestic aviation environment, let alone 15 to 20. Who knows where Heathrow will be by then?

[Martin Horwood]

The evidence from other high-speed rail systems around the world is that where they are over sufficient distances—which, admittedly, probably means further than Birmingham—there is something like an 80% drop in air traffic over those distances. London to Paris is a good example.

[Paul Maynard]

I agree almost entirely with that point—but perhaps only 80%. It very much depends on where someone is flying from and where they are going to, and I suggest that in 15 years’ time perhaps no one will be flying domestically to Heathrow, if only because it might have ceased to be an international hub. We might all be flying to Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfurt, but that is another matter entirely.

The key variable in the discussion on HS2 is demand. Whether demand will increase is contested, but as someone who travels regularly on the west coast main line, I know full well that that line is already reaching capacity. The east coast main line is also struggling, and we cannot have people being herded into pens at Euston station on a Friday evening and say that we are not at capacity already. I accept entirely the argument that extra capacity has to be provided, but it is not simply a matter of expanding a few platforms here and inserting a few carriages there, making cattle class a literal concept for millions of travellers. We have to discuss what type of capacity to provide, and I realise that that is perhaps a confused area for people on both sides of the argument.

[Mr Tom Harris (Glasgow South) (Lab)]

The record will show that the hon. Gentleman has just referred to a literal cattle class. I hope that he will take time to examine exactly what that means. When I was in a previous position and people used to challenge me about whether it was right to treat humans in the same way as cattle, I was always quick to point out that the cattle’s final destination was somewhat less enjoyable than Paddington.

[Paul Maynard]

I accept the hon. Gentleman’s point, but the conditions that many passengers are forced to face on our inter-city trains are analogous to those experienced by animals, even if their end destination is perhaps more pleasant.

[Mr Leech]

My hon. Friend has mentioned that he uses the west coast main line regularly, as do I. The trouble is that if the number of west coast main line trains from Manchester to London were increased from three to four an hour, it would have a detrimental impact on local services. That is why high-speed rail is so important in ensuring that we can maintain local and inter-regional services as well as the inter-city ones.

[Paul Maynard]

The hon. Gentleman has anticipated my next point. I take entirely the point that the network of high-speed rail that has been mapped out links areas with a high concentration of service industries, which is key to saying that the predictions for demand are more robust than they were, for instance, in Spain, where Madrid and Seville were linked. Seville had a high level of heavy industry but no service industry, so no demand occurred.

I want to make a number of other points before concluding and allowing as many hon. Members as possible to participate in the debate. May I make a plea to the Minister on open-access rail? We have just seen the sad failure of the Wrexham and Shrewsbury service, which was a good example of open access, but it failed to make money. There are other examples around the country, such as Grand Central, which have shown that open access can work. I urge the Minister unambiguously to state her support for open access in the forthcoming White Paper, and indeed today, because many open access companies are uncertain about their future. In Blackpool, open access is perhaps our only chance of getting a link to London. I urge her, therefore, to make some positive noises on open access.

In conclusion, whenever we write reports, there is always the temptation to come up with a wish list, and I have fallen into the trap myself today by highlighting the northern hub. Wish lists are easy to make, but it is far harder to have a discussion and come to a view on how to prioritise policy making. How do we reconcile all the different competing local priorities that we each have in our constituencies with the apportioning of public money? That is not easy.

[Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) (Con)]

As a north Wales MP, my question concerns the extent to which there should be a recognition of the economic impact of railway investment, and to what degree the investment should take regional variations into account. My understanding is that investment in railways does not, for example, take into account investment in Wales, so we cannot even compare investment in Wales with investment in other parts of the United Kingdom. Should we have a system that allows us to identify investment in Wales as a percentage of overall investment in the railways?

[Paul Maynard]

It is important that we have more local decision making. It is easy to say such things, and we all do—we all talk about localism now—but we have to realise that it is not a case of build it and they will come. We recently heard evidence about Stratford International rail station, which has no international rail services. Merely building transport infrastructure does not guarantee passengers or even economic growth. Those involved in local government often place too much hope in signature schemes, which they spend public money on promoting. They tell us that those schemes will be transformational, but, 10 years down the road, they are shown to be nothing of the sort.

We need more innovation. Yes, it is easy to say that, too, and we all do. Small local schemes—a passing place here, a passing place there, a slightly longer platform somewhere else—can be cost-effective ways of increasing capacity. However, priorities also need to be decided at the regional and sub-regional levels, as well as at a national level. We have an increasingly complex and dense map of economic decision-making organisations. We have travel-to-work areas, city regions, local enterprise partnerships, strategic transport partnerships and smaller, micro-local organisations. One of the best transport submissions that I have ever seen came from a body called Upper Calder Valley Renaissance. It was incredibly powerful and full of good ideas, with a real understanding of the local transport economy, but it covered a micro-area.

I make a plea to the Minister to somehow grasp that nettle. We have a profusion of expertise out there, which enables us to make good quality, evidence-based decisions at local level. I despair when I hear the Department for Transport arguing the toss over the siting of a vending machine on a platform at Crewe station, because that has nothing to do with the Department. However, the Department has a role to play in ensuring that rail investment decisions are based on the greatest economic benefit and that proposals are evidence based. We can then worry about the politics.

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[Chris White]

I thank my right hon. Friend for her comments.

If I may pursue my argument further, there are still some questions to be asked—such as whether the assumption of background growth in demand of 133% is truly realistic; such as whether potential competition from conventional rail has been taken into consideration when calculating the returns to be generated by this investment; such as whether new developments in technology, including video conferencing, online communication and information sharing, will seriously reduce the need for travel.

Large countries such as China are considering whether there are clear benefits to high-speed rail. A report by The Economist only two weeks ago entitled “On the wrong track” highlighted the fact that many of the newly added lines are making hefty losses and are thought to be operating at under half capacity. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has asked the Chinese Government to reconsider the case for investment in high-speed rail.

[Paul Maynard]

Does my hon. Friend agree that there is a crucial difference in that we have freedom of movement, but China does not, which slightly adjusts market demand?

[Chris White]

I agree with that specific point. However, if China, which has an economy twice the size of ours, is considering whether high-speed rail gives value for money, despite the point made by hon. Friend we should think again.

As the Eddington transport study highlighted, it is not that Britain’s transport system is not quick enough, but rather that it is extremely dense and we need greater investment in capacity.