Railways

My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. I should like to open by saying that we welcome progress on Thameslink, Birmingham New Street, Reading and other longer trains and platforms. However, it seems wise to restrain our natural enthusiasm until we have seen the contracts signed and work underway. I should like to confirm in your Lordships’ House the answers to questions asked in another place. Can the Minister give the dates on which work on Thameslink, Birmingham and Reading will start? Has a budget definitely been committed for the whole of each of these projects or are they dependent in any way on the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review? Is the whole of Thameslink 2000 now fully funded? Are the 300 carriages trailed today part of the reannounced InterCity Express programme or an addition to it? The million-dollar question is: what has happened to Crossrail? This is yet another damp squib for Crossrail, which apparently does not feature in the Government’s plan for the next 30 years of our rail system, despite announcement after announcement from Ministers; despite, astonishingly, £254 million spent on preparation; and despite a clear commitment from the previous Prime Minister. It is sad but true that today’s Statement will be a real disappointment for Londoners and the City, which no amount of warm words from the Prime Minister can disguise. Sadly, this is all too familiar. Today’s announcements are just the latest in a long line of increasingly dense and lengthy strategies, reports and initiatives on transport from this Government. If the travelling public could travel on paper promises, there would be no delays, no overcrowding and the journey to work would be blissfully smooth for commuters each day. Unfortunately, the reality is far from a magic carpet ride. In the past year alone we have seen commuters go on strike, facilities ripped out of carriages to provide extra standing room and fares hiked by 20 per cent on a main route into London. The reality is that the Government have announced and reannounced virtually all the initiatives we have heard about today. Thameslink 2000 was promised so long ago, the former Deputy Prime Minister was still in charge of transport. Even now, only part of the scheme that was promised is being promised again. As for Birmingham New Street, the Government pledged to tackle bottlenecks in the West Midlands seven years ago. Longer platforms and 1,000 of the 1,300 carriages announced today were promised last year. Yet not one of those projects has been delivered. The Government’s delivery on transport has been stalled and delayed more than their trains. I confess that I have little faith in the latest in a long line of policy freight. I remind noble Lords of the promised three-and-a-half hour journey time from Edinburgh, the light rail schemes in Liverpool and Leeds, the north-south high speed line, all of them policies shunted into the siding. Most distressingly, the pledge on safe and secure travel, when there has been a 43 per cent increase in the number of victims of violence recorded by the British Transport Police, also seems to have run away. Seven years ago we were promised, "““improved commuter rail services, less overcrowding and reduced delays””." But even after fitting the timetables to meet limp public performance measure targets, more than one in 10 trains runs late in this country. Thousands of commuters face standing for their entire journey every day of the working week. The overcrowding which blights lines into our major cities is now reaching a crisis point, which is seriously undermining our quality of life and competitiveness, both north and south. On behalf of the Secretary of State, the Minister claimed real achievements and successes today. But I would love to be a fly on the wall as the Secretary of State announces those great achievements to the commuters who are packed so tight in the morning rush hour it would be a criminal offence to transport animals in the same way. The biggest let-down of all is in Her Majesty’s Government’s 10-year plan, which told us: "““We will seek real reductions in the cost of rail travel””." Each of the three latest franchises awarded by the DfT will implement rises of nearly 30 per cent by 2015. Many families are feeling the pinch because of stratospheric fare increases inflicted by the DfT, racing well ahead of inflation. It seems now that even the saver fare is under threat. The one thing we can guarantee for this Government’s future plans for the railway is more rail fare hikes to come. Accusations of blame fall at the train operating companies, but the real culprit is the Department for Transport, which now has a more intrusive role in our railways than in the days of British Rail. It is sad at a time when rail transport is more depended on than ever before that the Statement does not usher in a new era on our transport system any more than the rest of the reports, strategies and studies that have poured out of Whitehall over the past decade. The truth is that the real blame for the state of our transport system falls at the feet of the Prime Minister. The extortionate fare increases for grossly over-crowded trains are Mr Brown’s fare increases. The Metronet PPP fiasco is most definitely the personal fiasco of the Prime Minister. The failures and broken promises of the past decade are the failures and broken promises signed and sealed by Mr Brown.