First Great Western Franchise

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. I must also declare what I might call an informal interest: the line to which he refers runs 10 yd away from my house, and the high-speed trains shake it gently as they pass, so the idea of faster trains causes me a little alarm in respect of its structure. However, my hon. Friend is making a point about the effect on the environment. He is also discussing long-distance trains, but, like me, he represents a rural area, and I ask him to reflect on the effect on local rural services. In the town of Melksham in my constituency, where usage has gone up by a factor of nine over the past few years, the services will be cut from one every two hours to two round trips a day. The effect on traffic in my area will be enormous. At a time when we are talking about the importance of the environment, it seems very strange that the Government are acceding to a reduction in services in places such as Melksham, which will be bad for people's transport, for the mobility of elderly people and for jobs.