- I call Lord Beith to ask the first Oral Question.
- I beg leave to ask the question
standing in my name on the order paper.
- I call the Minister Baroness Vere of Norbiton.
- My Lords, my department has had regular discussions
with London North Eastern Railways or LNER
about the May 2022 timetable proposals
for the east coast main line.
LNER and the department are committed
to improving services for passengers
served by this important route.
And I would encourage all noble Lords with an interest
to engage with LNER's public consultation
to ensure that their views are considered.
- [Lord Speaker] Lord Beith
- My Lords, the consultation document,
to which she has referred,
says that the structure of the timetable for May 2022
is fixed, which leaves little opportunity
for change to be made.
Given that it involves halving Berwick-upon-Tweed's
hourly service to London to a train every two hours,
with longer journey times, can the minister assure me
that she will personally take steps
to secure a proper review of these plans
which cannot be squared
with the government's levelling up agenda?
- [Various Lords] Here, here.
- My Lords, the Rail Minister
has challenged the department to investigate all options
for increasing regional connectivity.
It is the case that Berwick-upon-Tweed
will retain its current level of service,
but there will be a change to the balance of the services.
So yes, there will be fewer fast trains to London.
However, there will be more services
to Midlands and the Southwest on CrossCountry.
- [Lord Speaker] Lord Bishop of Durham.
- My Lords, I declare an interest as a regular LNER user,
and I have a lot of sympathy with the noble Lord Beith.
I recognise the connections from Darlington, Durham,
and Newcastle are northwards as well as southwards.
Will the minister comment though, on how local services,
such as those from Bishop Auckland to Middlesbrough
and the possible reopening of Dorrum to Sunderland
need to be invested in for the economic growth
of the Northeast as a whole?
- My Lords, this government is investing billions of pounds
in the railways, particularly in the north,
obviously through the Restoring Your Railway Fund,
but also through the other schemes
that we are bringing through
the rail network enhancements pipeline.
Of course, we are looking at regional connectivity
of the type that he has mentioned,
and I will take his comments back to the department.
- Lord Mackay of Clashfern
- My Lords, as a resident of Inverness,
I have a great interest in being sure
that there will be one train each way
from Inverness to King's Cross in the future.
- [Various Lords] Here, here.
- My Lords, I'd like to reassure my noble and learned friend
that there are daily services at the moment
between Inverness and King's Cross, as he knows,
and these will and are proposed to remain in operation
under the May 2022 proposals.
- Lord Sentamu
- My Lords, I declare an interest.
I live a mile and a half from Berwick Station,
and most of us find these cuts to be so stringent
in terms of the daytime from a train every hour
to a slower train every two hours.
Locals are shocked, businesses, tourism, residents,
of who I'm one of them.
Knowing that actually is good to use the train
instead of our cars because of the environment,
that it is good to do this,
how can we have confidence that this service is actually,
which are being so slashed for us to be able to use them,
will the government really look carefully
on what has been proposed?
And since this is a public utility
for them as guardians to protect it?
And I just hope this is not the beginning
of the resurrection of the spirit of Richard Beeching.
- [Various Lords] Here, here.
- I do welcome the noble Lord, Lord Sentamu
back to your Lordship's House,
and in doing so I recognise
the concerns he has raised about Berwick-upon-Tweed.
And I am sure that he will join many other people
in responding to the consultation.
And it is true that we have had to make difficult trade-offs
within the timetabling options,
given the capacity that is available.
But what we're trying to do is maximise
the benefit of the £4 billion
that we have invested in infrastructure
and in rolling stock.
And the proposals on the table now
actually increase revenues by £60 million a year,
so therefore we do feel that we are getting
good return on taxpayer funding.
- Baroness Quin
- My Lords, although the LNER proposals
do help my local station, Alnmouth,
which I am pleased about,
nonetheless I do support the comments
by my fellow Northumbrians, the noble Lord, Lord Beith,
and the noble Lord, Lord Sentamu.
And surely, if levelling up
means anything other than warm words,
we need far quicker action
on both rail and road network investment north of Newcastle.
- The noble Lady is quite right,
in that we have an ambitious program
both in the rail sector but also roads.
The noble Lady will know that we already
have a programme of work on the A1
and several projects around the north-east.
So she makes a very, very important point
and the government is well aware
of the opportunities to invest in the north-east.
- Baroness Randerson
- My Lords, it is estimated that Berwick
could see a cut of 72 trains a week.
Does the noble Lady, the minister agree
this is totally contrary to the principles
behind the government's transport decarbonisation plan,
totally contrary to the principles behind levelling up?
And the root cause of the problems
is inadequate infrastructure capacity,
long past its date for upgrading?
What is the government going to do about that?
- [Various Lords] Here, here.
- Well, the government has already, and is investing,
billions of pounds in the railway system,
and including in the north-east.
And the noble Lady has once again mentioned
the changes to the services in Berwick,
so I perhaps won't dwell on that,
because I believe I have covered that,
but I will say that there are
always difficult decisions to make.
And for example, Edinburgh gets more services out of this,
which improves union connectivity.
Edinburgh will have additional, faster trains to London.
There will be a four-hour journey time.
And that of course will be highly competitive
versus taking an aircraft.
- Lord Rosser
- As part of these proposed timetable changes,
which LNER say, quote, "involve a series of trade-offs,"
close quote, services on the TransPennine Express
between Newcastle and Manchester
will be reduced from twice an hour to once an hour,
and an increase in the frequency of services
between Teesside, Sunderland, and Newcastle
will be postponed.
Given that Northern Powerhouse Rail
has still not been confirmed, is this not further evidence
that the government is backing off
on increasing direct interconnectivity of northern cities?
Is it not unfortunate that, in the trade-offs,
it's local and regional services that would lose out
in order to increase services to London and the south-east?
- I am not entirely sure that the evidence
supports what the noble Lord's said in his last comment,
but I do accept that there are difficult trade-offs.
And railway capacity is not expandable immediately,
so one always has to work
with the capacity that one has available.
It is the case that we have spent £4 billion
on upgrading the infrastructure and also the rolling stock.
And what we must do is make sure
that we use that capacity to best effect.
And, as I've already said,
there would be a significant increase in revenues
from these proposals.
- Lord McIntosh of Pickering
- The LNER services from Northallerton, my local station,
and Darlington southwards are being severely cut
in the 2022 timetable.
Darlington to Stockton
was the first railway line in the country,
and serves very much the levelling-up programme.
Effectively the government owns LNER,
so please could they actually help
to make sure that we have the effective service
that we currently have carried over to 2022?
- [Various Lords] Here, here.
- Well, of course, as my noble friend will know,
that there will be some service changes.
And she has outlined what they are,
as have many other noble Lords.
And of course, other areas will see an increase in services.
But I would reiterate that there is an opportunity
to respond to the consultation.
And I know that my colleague in the department
is pressing Network Rail, the train operating companies,
and our officials very hard to make sure we can retain
as much regional connectivity as possible.
- Lord Berkeley
- My Lords, following on my noble friend
Lord Rosser's remarks, is the minister aware of the comment
by Transport for the North recently in Rail Magazines,
which states, and I quote,
that "the east coast mainline revisions
means that the north-east is losing trains
to Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh
in favour of more trains to London,"
and that this does not reflect the levelling-up agenda?
Would the minister agree that it's important
to focus on the local and regional services,
where actually the demand is greatest?
- Unfortunately, I didn't see that comment,
as I don't read the Rail Magazine.
Potentially I should, but we have to reach a balance here.
It cannot be focused specifically
on only one type of travel.
So what we have tried to do,
and indeed LNER has tried to do,
is to get the right balance
to ensure that we are meeting customer demand
and that we are providing value for money for the taxpayer.
- Lord Foulkes of Cumnock
- My Lords, the 9:30 from Edinburgh to King's Cross
yesterday, on which I was due to travel, was cancelled.
And the stories going around were
that this was because there are continuing problems
with cracks in the Azuma trains,
which would be extremely worrying.
Can the minister confirm whether this is the case?
- I will, I can confirm that in the first instance
it's obviously safety is absolutely paramount
on our railways.
At the moment, there is one, just one,
LNER set out of service.
And repairs are obviously ongoing
and will probably be finished by the end of the summer.
But I'd like to just reassure all noble Lords
that this is being done in a safe fashion,
and to minimise the disruption for passengers.