Great Western Railway Routes

I thank my hon. Friend for sharing with the House his superb knowledge of the vegetation on the G...

I am sorry to bring a disagreeable note into what has, so far, been an extremely agreeable debate...

My hon. Friend is right that there are many positive stories to be told. Let us be blunt that a k...

rose—

I think my hon. Friend was there.

That is very ungentlemanly of my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Moor View (Johnny Mercer). ...

My hon. Friend is being very generous. Box tunnel is, of course, in my constituency. He will know...

Absolutely. I do not want to get involved in a cross-Wiltshire debate about tunnel openings and p...

My hon. Friend’s constituency is very similar to mine in that it is very tourism-based. Does he a...

Absolutely. As I am sure my hon. Friend is aware, the early figures for the Borders railway that ...

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I will give way once more, but then I must make some progress so that I do not hog the time.

Does my hon. Friend agree that we should expand the existing park-and-ride services? In my consti...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that park and ride can play a huge part in giving rural commun...

Does the hon. Gentleman share my profound disappointment over the delays in the western rail acce...

And Wales.

Indeed, and Wales. It will help those travellers to get to Heathrow—our premier hub airport. Will...

I thank the right hon. Lady for her passionate and well-argued intervention. She is absolutely ri...

I want to support the point the hon. Gentleman is making. The incident he is talking about was th...

I agree completely. My constituency is not scheduled to benefit from the electrification project,...

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this debate. One major reason for the escalating co...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his interesting intervention, and I am sure that the Minister will...

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. He is talking about electrificat...

Having changed trains at Westbury, I share my hon. Friend’s concern about maintaining the ability...

I apologise to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to the hon. Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster) for ar...

In highlighting the beauty of the line to Exeter, may I encourage the right hon. Gentleman to sta...

I know the line through Dawlish very well. I spent childhood holidays in Salcombe. In fact, my pa...

I thank the right hon. Gentleman, who, given the speech he is making today, I will call my right ...

I entirely agree. The Labour Government set up an independent infrastructure body—I cannot rememb...

If we want business to use railways, we also need to ensure a good level of broadband so that peo...

I forgot to mention that broadband is terrible in standard class. It never works. I just use 3G, ...

Will the right hon. Gentleman concede that Network Rail committed to paying for the studies? The ...

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that the Government have never come up with the money. I a...

May I add to the right hon. Gentleman’s shopping list? The Minister might like to reassure us abo...

I entirely agree, and we look forward to hearing the Minister respond at the end of this debate. ...

I simply hope that at some point the right hon. Gentleman will welcome the fact that there will b...

Yes, and we have already had a new station opened just outside my constituency—and the investment...

rose—

I am sorry, but I am not giving way again.

Order. The right hon. Member is not giving way.

I have said I am grateful for that station and that I am grateful for the investment programme th...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

No, I will not. I am finishing and the hon. Lady can speak in the debate.

More than 12 Cons...

I think that all Conservative Members will be sticking up not just for their own constituents but...

The very fact that the trains running between Penzance and Paddington were first introduced in 19...

My hon. Friend makes a very fair point. It is this Government, and the former coalition Governmen...

I agree with my hon. Friend that what was done in Dawlish was absolutely right and that we must k...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. At present, we have just one spine going along the south of t...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Anne Marie Morris), whose stirring s...

I am enjoying the hon. Gentleman’s speech, but does he agree that we must ensure that the rolling...

That is a very good point. I hope that what has been said today will be noted not just by the Min...

The hon. Gentleman seems to have neglected to mention the role played by Ieuan Wyn Jones, the Tra...

Ieuan Wyn Jones played a good hand in that campaign, and so did Andrew Davies, the Economic Minis...

You are making some important points. Would you accept that the electrification of the line down ...

I agree entirely with the hon. Gentleman, but I hope that he will support my point that this proj...

The hon. Gentleman is making a very important point. Does he agree that it would be far better if...

I would certainly be reasonably happy with that. I would probably start them from Bridgend and wo...

Order. Before I call the next speaker, may I say that there is something strange going on this ev...

Thank, you for calling me in this debate, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I will try very hard to do th...

This is very much about the resilience of infrastructure into the west country, because we have n...

My hon. Friend is 100% right about the need to have that second line. My personal preference is f...

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster) on securing this important deb...

This has been suggested to me once or twice before. In my experience, if one politely asks somebo...

I am a shrinking violent and would never presume to do such a thing, but I take the right hon. Ge...

As well as resilience, do we not need to get the network running smarter? For example, a great tr...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I am not aware of the particular jiggery-pokery he mentions, b...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way. I feel like an intruder in this debate, as I do n...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I am delighted to welcome him to beautiful north Devon. The ro...

May I take this opportunity to stress the importance of access for wheelchair users? My friend Si...

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. I have travelled on the north Devon line between Barnstabl...

I am sorry that I had to miss parts of the debate, but I was rehearsing with the Parliament choir...

Order. There is no need for a time limit in this debate as we have plenty of time, but when we ha...

You will be delighted, Madam Deputy Speaker, to know that my speech will be very brief indeed.