Telford Rail Services

Simon Burns Excerpts

Monday 19th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mr Simon Burns)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Telford (David Wright), not only on securing this debate but on the courteous and inimitable way in which he has made his case. He raised a number of important issues, and I will do my best to respond to them in the time available.

The hon. Gentleman is correct to say that Shropshire no longer has a direct service to London. Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway provided a direct service from Shropshire to London and was—as the hon. Gentleman said—an open-access operator run as a commercial entity. Many of WSMR’s passengers were disappointed when Deutsche Bahn decided to stop those services. That was, of course, entirely a commercial decision for Deutsche Bahn, and not something in which the Government could intervene. I understand, however, that the decision was made on the basis that the service could not provide a return on investment, and that the operator had made considerable losses since it was launched in April 2008.

WSMR held track access rights to run services from Marylebone to Wrexham until December 2014. Once it stopped running those services, any operator—either passenger or freight—could have applied to the Office of Rail Regulation for the rights to run trains on those routes. Alternative services are provided by other rail companies, such as Virgin West Coast, London Midland and Chiltern Railways, which is also owned by Deutsche Bahn. It is worth noting that even with a change at Birmingham International, existing services on Virgin and Arriva Trains are up to half an hour quicker than WSMR services from London to Shrewsbury.

As I am sure the hon. Gentleman will appreciate, the cancelled west coast main line rail franchise is our top departmental priority at the moment, and I am truly grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s input to the wider debate. Clearly, serious mistakes have been made. I understand that the cancellation of the west coast competition came as a great disappointment to many passengers, and particularly to his constituents in Telford, given that First Group had stated publicly that it would introduce the direct services between Telford and London that the hon. Gentleman has spoken about.

As part of the two consultation exercises that the Department held on the inter-city west coast service, we received a number of representations about reintroducing direct services to Shropshire from London in the future. Although the Department did not specify a requirement for a direct service from Telford in the invitation to tender, we expected bidders to take account of consultation responses when developing their service proposals. All bidders therefore had the opportunity to propose enhanced services to Telford. However, the contents of bids are commercially confidential, and some bidders have chosen not to put details of their proposals in the public domain. I am therefore not in a position to confirm whether or not that was the case for the other shortlisted bidders, as it would be inappropriate and wrong for me to disclose what was in the confidential bids.

As the House knows, the Secretary of State has asked for two reviews of the west coast main line franchise process. The first, led by Sam Laidlaw, is examining the events that led to the cancellation of the ICWC franchise on 3 October. An interim report from Mr Laidlaw setting out what went wrong, and his initial thinking on why it went wrong, was published on 29 October. His final report is due at the end of this month.

The second review of the wider rail franchising programme—by Eurostar chairman Richard Brown—is due by the end of this year. Decisions on the timing and nature of competitions for future franchises will be taken once we receive Richard Brown’s report, so it would be wrong to speculate on his findings at this stage, including the implications for any services to and from Telford.

Obviously, we must learn lessons from the reviews and will need to run a new competition for the west coast franchise. The Government are fully committed to a franchising system that delivers for both the taxpayer and the fare payer, with private sector investment and innovation helping to drive the improvements and value that passengers deserve. We want that to happen as quickly as possible, but we want to get it right, which will take some time. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will therefore forgive me for not speculating about the Laidlaw and Brown reviews today, but I should like to reassure him that we will continue to keep the House informed of all developments, as we have done so far.

As I have said, although the cancelled ICWC competition did not have a direct service to Shropshire included in the specification, I can assure the hon. Gentleman that, when we are in a position to restart the bid, he will have an opportunity to make the case on behalf of his constituents.

A future west coast operator would also need to consider rolling stock for services. Unlike the majority of the network covered by the west coast franchise, the line to Shrewsbury via Telford is not electrified, meaning that any direct services would need to use more expensive diesel trains rather than today’s Pendolino trains. The House will recall that the coalition Government reaffirmed our commitment to a rolling programme of electrification of the rail network when we announced the latest phase of our investment programme in the summer, which will see more than £9.4 billion invested from 2014 to 2019 to deliver a greener, more cost-efficient railway that is better for freight and for passengers. This comprehensive investment programme represents the largest and most ambitious modernisation of our railways since the Victorian era. It includes an electric spine route running from the south coast to the east midlands, and a massive improvement of services in south Wales. I expect future phases of the programme to extend electrification even further. The lines serving Telford and Shropshire might well be a route that is considered.

Telford currently has two services an hour to Wolverhampton and Birmingham—there are slightly more in the peak hours—one of which is the fast service travelling direct to Wolverhampton before calling at Smethwick Galton Bridge for the interchange with Snow Hill line services, which go on to Birmingham New Street. The other service is the stopping service. I am aware that the existing services are very popular, although I am afraid I cannot promise to mandate new services at the moment. That said, nothing in the franchise agreements prevents operators from putting on additional services if there is sufficient passenger demand. The Department would be happy to look at any proposal that would mean that that happened. However, operators would want to reassure themselves that any new services were commercially viable, and that appropriate rolling stock was available, before they considered implementing new services. As with direct services to London, I expect that bidders for the next west coast franchise will want to look carefully at that to see whether such an opportunity exists.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned existing services and cited the example of an elderly gentleman who had to stand on his journey to Telford. I have considerable sympathy with him. I believe it is important that we have enough capacity on trains on the existing service to minimise such situations. I fully appreciate that travelling on a crowded train is not ideal, and I am sure the hon. Gentleman agrees. Clearly, in some places, railways are the victims of their own success, with more people travelling on the rail network than ever before—I am talking not just about the Telford line, but about the whole of England and Wales.

Although I am not able to promise more capacity in Telford, I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the Government are facing up to the issue of capacity across the network. For example, the west midlands will soon benefit from 40 new rail carriages that have been ordered and are expected to come into service in 2014, strengthening a number of different services on the London Midland network. Although the Shropshire line through Telford is not planned to be a direct recipient of that additional capacity in this phase, this is a rolling programme targeting the most crowded sections of the network. I give the hon. Gentleman the assurance that we will keep the train situation in his constituency under review.

It is important that existing services operate reliably, and I seek to reassure the hon. Gentleman. London Midland, for example, has faced driver shortages in recent weeks. That has affected passengers on its network, including on the Shropshire line. We take that problem very seriously indeed and are working closely with London Midland to address it so that we can reduce the sort of incidents and situations that have arisen on the line, causing problems for the hon. Gentleman’s constituents and those of other hon. Members in recent weeks.

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind words on the investment at Telford station, which is being delivered as part of the national stations improvement programme. It is a reflection on the hon. Gentleman that he is prepared, in a debate of this nature, to be generous in recognising what is going on in his constituency, and the improvements that are being made to benefit his constituents. As he will appreciate, the national stations improvement programme has made a total of £150 million available over five years to improve passenger facilities at busy stations in England and Wales that the public have identified as not up to scratch.

The choice of schemes, as the hon. Gentleman will be aware, has been managed at a local level with Network Rail and train operating companies working together to agree the most efficient way to deliver the upgrades. As the hon. Gentleman alluded to in his comments, Telford was one of more than 240 stations to benefit from the programmes so far. It is now nearing completion and has been a good example of that co-operative work. It shows that through continued investment in stations across the network—nearly £1 million on the project in Telford alone—we can make a real difference to the passenger experience. Although the programme at Telford has suffered some setbacks during its course, I believe that when the work is completed and passengers are able to enjoy the new facilities, such as the new, refurbished waiting rooms, they will agree with both of us that this has been money well spent.

We remain committed to further station improvements across the country, and as the hon. Gentleman will be aware, the recent high-level output specification announcement included a further £100 million of funding for station improvements up to 2019, as well as another £100 million to extend the Access for All programme, delivering improvements for disabled people, also to 2019. The programme is of crucial importance, because there are still a number of stations where the facilities for access for disabled people are unacceptable and need to be improved. This investment will go a considerable way towards rectifying that problem in many stations.

The hon. Gentleman clearly feels that there is a lot of demand for services between Telford and London, and he has presented a strong case on behalf of his constituents in a reasonable and responsible way. I realise that I have not agreed that his points will be specified as a requirement in the next west coast franchise, but it is interesting to note that in the previous competition at least one bidder decided that there was a commercial case for running these services. As I said, he and other hon. Members will be able to contribute to the consultations prior to the franchise being drawn up, and they will have a chance, yet again, to express their views, and those of their constituents, on what is rightly for them an important issue—that of a direct service from Shrewsbury and Telford to London and back.

As I said, it is interesting to note that at least one bidder in the previous competition decided that there was a commercial case for running the services, which helps the hon. Gentleman and other hon. Members in making their case. As we prepare to re-launch the west coast pre-franchising process, the Department will need to examine a wide range of options.

I would like to thank the hon. Gentleman for giving me the opportunity to respond in the House, and to explain the current situation and some of the constraints on what I can and cannot say owing to commercial confidentiality. I recognise that we are in this unfortunate situation regarding the west coast main line, but I urge him to make his case during the consultation process prior to the franchise agreement being drawn up. I wish him well in his endeavours on behalf of his constituents.

Question put and agreed to.