Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Department for Transport

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Mosley Excerpts
Thursday 12th January 2012

(12 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Theresa Villiers Portrait Mrs Villiers
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I certainly noted the hon. Gentleman’s concerns about ScotRail. I will take them on board and officials will be happy to raise them with Transport Scotland.

Stephen Mosley Portrait Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
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The west coast main line franchise, which serves the west of Scotland, is up for renewal next year. What consideration have bidders for the franchise been asked to put in place to ensure that no disturbance is caused by the construction of HS2, either at Euston or in the London area during the period of that franchise?

Theresa Villiers Portrait Mrs Villiers
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It will be a very important part of the planning process for the construction of HS2 that every effort is made to minimise the disruption on existing rail networks. Indeed, that is one of the reasons why building a new high-speed rail network is a better option than seeking to eke more capacity out of the existing west coast main line, given the decade of disruption that passengers suffered on that. There will be an impact on Euston, but a huge amount of effort is going to be put into ensuring that that is minimised.