Sheila Gilmore
Main Page: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)Department Debates - View all Sheila Gilmore's debates with the Department for Transport
(10 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Hayes
I do understand that the death toll on this road is continuing to rise, and I also understand the delays that travellers are enduring as a result of congestion. I know that my hon. Friend has previously made this case, as has my hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury (Mr Robertson). The Department is conscious of that and of the need to do more across a whole range of roads, but he can be assured that the powerful case they have both made will not fall on deaf ears.
Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)
7. How many of the shortlisted bidders for the inter-city east coast franchise are wholly or partly foreign-owned.
The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Patrick McLoughlin)
Three bidding companies are taking part in the competition for the inter-city east coast franchise, one of which is partly foreign-owned.
Sheila Gilmore
When I last asked the Transport Secretary about this issue on 8 May, he said that the reason Directly Operated Railways would be at a disadvantage and therefore could not take part in the competition was that it was funded through the taxpayer, yet both parts of Keolis-Eurostar are currently majority-owned by the French and UK Governments. What is it about that state-owned company that gives it an edge over our own state-owned company?
Mr McLoughlin
I just remember and call to mind the words of the last Transport Secretary under the previous Labour Government, who said that he did
“not believe that it would be in the public interest for us to have a nationalised train operating company indefinitely.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 1 July 2009; Vol. 712, c. 232.]
I agree with those words, which he used when he was last in this office and had responsibility for this issue.