Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Robert Goodwill and Karen Lumley(8 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr Goodwill
Well, that new colony certainly worked out well.
My hon. Friend is right that investment in infrastructure is vital to the economic development of the south-west, which is why we have committed £31 million to improving the resilience of the Great Western route. We have already heard about the £40 million used to fix Dawlish and the long-overdue investment in the A30 and the A303, which have long been the scourge of tourists and business people travelling to the south-west.
Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
10. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that cross-channel transport links remain open.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Robert Goodwill)
Recent improvements to security measures include fencing, additional security guards, dogs, and improved CCTV and thermal imaging cameras. In addition to these measures, the French Government have committed very significant police resources to the Calais area.
Karen Lumley
On my summer business tour, I met lots of exporters in Redditch having terrible trouble getting their goods into Europe. Can my hon. Friend assure me and Redditch businesses that his Department is doing everything possible to ensure that my businesses prosper in the future?
Mr Goodwill
The channel link is certainly vital to the whole UK economy, and particularly to the haulage industry. I was recently at Folkestone and saw some of the problems at first hand. In particular, there were issues with regard to just-in-time delivery of parts for the motor industry, steel rails produced in Scunthorpe that are exported to the continent, and lobsters produced in my constituency that travel in trucks across to customers in France and Spain.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Robert Goodwill and Karen Lumley(9 years, 5 months ago)
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Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Robert Goodwill)
In September the Government announced that the high-speed rail college will be co-located in Birmingham and Doncaster. Work is now under way with the local authorities concerned to get the college up and running. Our goal is for students to be admitted in the academic year 2017-18, which incidentally will coincide with the start of construction.
Karen Lumley
We need more young people to take up careers in engineering. What is my hon. Friend doing to ensure that schools and colleges are aware of the opportunities that the HS2 academy can provide?
Mr Goodwill
HS2 is already engaging with schools and colleges. For example, in November it attended the Skills Show for the first time. We need 10,000 people in engineering just to cope with the demand for skills in the existing rail investment strategy, and we need another 25,000 to deliver HS2.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Robert Goodwill and Karen Lumley(10 years ago)
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Mr Goodwill
As additional capacity is provided at Waterloo, which is the busiest station in the country with almost 100 million passengers per year, that will allow more flexibility further afield, but this is part of the problem of addressing the tremendous increase in passenger ridership that has occurred since privatisation.
Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
9. What plans he has to set up an HS2 skills academy.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Robert Goodwill and Karen Lumley(10 years, 4 months ago)
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Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
T4. Happy Christmas, Mr Speaker.May I support the earlier call for Birmingham International station to be renamed Birmingham Airport, but will the Secretary of State work with me to ensure that that happens now, even before HS2 is built?
Mr Goodwill
I repeat that that is an eminently sensible suggestion. I certainly would not advocate naming the station after either a footballer or a politician, although Lumley Junction has a certain ring about it, does it not?
High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill
Debate between Robert Goodwill and Karen Lumley(10 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr Goodwill
The timetable for the Davies commission report is well known, and there will be an interim report in December. Whether or not we put the spur in from HS2 down to Heathrow, in the plans we have published there is already a connection through Old Oak common; there will be an 11-minute connection to Heathrow via the Crossrail service with up to eight services an hour. So Heathrow will have a connection whether or not we embark on the spur.
Karen Lumley
Does my hon. Friend agree, however, that a 38-minute journey time makes it easy to get from London to Birmingham international airport, which means that people in north London would not need to go to Heathrow?
Mr Goodwill
Indeed, that will increase choice for people who have the unfortunate experience in life of having to live in the south-east of England. It will give them more opportunities to visit the north and use airports up and down the country.
We need to ensure that we maximise the cumulative benefit of individual investments by ensuring they are all properly connected. I have to say that amendments 18 and 19 in the name of my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs Gillan) slightly confuse me. Amendment 19 seeks to limit expenditure to projects under phases 1 and 2 of the Bill, which finishes in Leeds and Manchester, but amendment 18 says that there should be more connectivity in Scotland. There is a degree of contradiction in those two amendments.