Flooding: Transport Disruption Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Transport
Simon Burns
Main Page: Simon Burns (Conservative - Chelmsford)Department Debates - View all Simon Burns's debates with the Department for Transport
(10 years, 10 months ago)
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Mr McLoughlin
There can be many reasons for train delays, and sometimes they are completely outside the control of Network Rail or the rail operators. I readily accept that point. Some of the problems faced by operators, even leaving aside exceptional storms, are completely outside their control.
Mr Simon Burns (Chelmsford) (Con)
Conservative Members welcome the decisive action of the Prime Minister and the Department for Transport in seeking to tackle the immediate problem and the extra money made available to repair the network. However, will my right hon. Friend accept that the important thing over the longer term will be greater resilience and improvement to the whole rail network? Will he confirm that the £38.5 billion for greater resilience to be made available over the next control period will exclude the additional money for High Speed 2?
Mr McLoughlin
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, who knows better than most the immense work going into improving resilience. Not long after I was appointed to this post, I went to Shugborough tunnel, which was closed over the Christmas period as it was being relaid; about £3 million was spent on getting the rails up and putting new drainage in. The works meant that trains could run through the tunnel at 125 mph rather than 50 mph. Nobody will have seen that £3 million being spent but it was one part of the very many things going on across the whole rail network that improve the facilities and services for our constituents.