Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Supplementary Provisions) Bill

As the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) has said, this is a short Bill that is uncontroversial in the House. It does have some significance, however, certainly for people such as my constituents in Norwich who are trying to use Stratford station in the way suggested by my hon. Friend the Member for South Thanet (Dr. Ladyman); to get better access to Eurostar and services to north Kent. I want to probe a little the remark made in response to his intervention by my hon. Friend the Minister, who said that the Bill will make no difference to the development of that. I strongly support the Bill, particularly the part that confirms section 6(1) of the Railways Act 2005 giving the Secretary of State the power to"““provide, or agree to provide, financial assistance to any person—""(a) for the purpose of securing the provision, improvement or development of railway services or railway assets; or""(b) for any other purpose relating to a railway or to railway services.””" As I understand it, clause 1 of the Bill confirms for the avoidance of doubt that the Secretary of State can following completion of the construction project continue to provide financial assistance to CTRL—the channel tunnel rail link—under the powers of the 2005 Act. That is one of the clarifications that the Bill seeks to make. In particular, the Bill confirms the Secretary of State's power to provide capital funds through a range of different mechanisms for the CTRL project. I understand why my hon. Friend the Minister therefore said that the Bill was not associated with a high-speed link such as High Speed 3 or HS4—or, in the case of Norwich, probably HS15, when it comes around. He might be interested to know that the leader of the Liberal Democrats on Norwich city council is arguing for us to get a full high-speed link—that HS15 project—right away, but I understand the public expenditure constraints my hon. Friend the Minister described. The Eddington report's statement that we should be trying to get far more efficiency out of our existing network is of relevance to the Bill and this issue, and in particular the question of the interchange between the main line service between Norwich and London—and other services coming into Stratford—and Eurostar and the Kent system. It seems to me—perhaps this will be clarified in the wind-up—that the power that the Bill confirms allowing the Secretary of State to require that money be spent on improving this network and the assets related to it could in principle, if the Secretary of State so desires, apply to creating out of Stratford station an effective high-quality interchange. I want to elaborate on that point. The Secretary of State should use that power to invest capital in the vital interchange station at Stratford, and in particular either to construct a travolator—it would have been far better had that been established earlier—or another convenient walkway, such as the eastern egress walkway which is currently being talked about, from the main line and other services at Stratford to the new international station on the Eurostar route. As other interventions have suggested, that will also be the connection to the new service to north Kent. Therefore, this is not simply to do with a high-speed service from the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for South Thanet or from Ashford; it is also to do with an interlink for people travelling from East Anglia to Kent. If they have that interchange at Stratford, the services will be improved. There is discussion and argument about what the exact distance of the interchange will be. I understood that it might be 400 m to 600 m, but I heard the Minister say he thought it might be 200 m. It will in any case be a relatively short distance, but it does not seem to me to be an unreasonable demand that people travelling internationally—going on holiday, perhaps—should not have to lug their bags about and should instead have the kind of automatic transit that we see in every airport in the country. My hon. Friend the Minister might confirm whether I am right, but that does not seem to me to fall outside the Secretary of State's remit in terms of the capital investment they could require. Of course, the case for investing in the interchange station is very powerful. There are three central arguments. First, as I said a moment ago, it would increase use from East Anglia and some parts of London, including the Canary Wharf area—that is not entirely insignificant when looking at business on the Eurostar service—of both Eurostar and the service to north and east Kent. As the hon. Member for Wimbledon said, that represents about 40 per cent. of the capacity of that line. That increased use would be a real benefit to millions of people, certainly including my constituents but also many others throughout the whole east and south of the country. The second case for investing in the interchange station is that it would increase revenue to Eurostar and put the Government in a stronger position to gain a proper return on their investment, which I understand is one of the Bill's purposes. For example, a survey commissioned by Newham council from Buchanans suggested that such a change would increase Eurostar's revenue by no less than 10 per cent. That is a big increase. There have been counter-suggestions that the figure could be as low as 2 per cent.; however, even 2 per cent. should not be sniffed at if one is trying to get better use of the network as a whole. That would be a matter of real interest to those involved in the restructuring of London and Continental Railways. In the context of the restructuring that the Minister described in his opening remarks, the potential travel and transit on the route is very important.