Railways

I will start with the last point first. I accept what the noble Lord says. Personally, if I had my own wish list, I would put more investment into dealing with single track issues. However, we have to look at this proportionately and measure where the most benefit is to be gained in dual-tracking. These things have to be looked at in terms of ordering priorities. Improving standards of maintenance remains a priority. Over the past few years, there have been significant improvements in maintenance standards, which will have a benefit in dealing with and tackling some of the issues relating to the impact of severe adverse weather such as has occurred over the past week or 10 days. On the use of the term ““unprecedented””, I argue that six and a half inches of rain falling in a very short period of time is pretty unprecedented. In my lifetime, I cannot remember too many occasions when that has happened in the United Kingdom. However, we seek improvements. We know that climate change will be an increasing feature, and we know that can have adverse consequences for the rail network as for other elements of national infrastructure. We know that we have to deal with that. It is right that we seek to ensure that where profound damage is done to the infrastructure through things such as rainfall we are well placed to tackle it. I apologise if my initial response on car parking was not as thorough as the noble Lord would have liked. I agreed that car parking was important for encouraging more off-peak demand, especially if car parks are full as early as the noble Lord suggested his is. I sometimes encounter a similar problem in Brighton, and the walk from the car park to the station seems ever longer the later I arrive, so I well understand the problem. We have highlighted that issue in the White Paper, and we seek to ensure that where improvements can be obtained commercially that can be achieved, to enable us to organise investment in other parts of the rail infrastructure and network. Yes, it is a priority, we will attend to it and we seek to work with partners to ensure that we can guarantee some longer-term improvements, particularly in those railheads where there is scope and capacity.