I thank the right hon. Lady for her passionate and well-argued intervention. She is absolutely right that the western rail access to Heathrow makes eminent sense for south Wales, my region and the Slough area. It will support not only the economies of our areas but the national economy, by making it easier to expand and develop our key hub airport. I hope that one thing the Minister will look at is the timeline for the western rail access. Given the widespread support across the House for that access, I hope that the timeframe will be greatly shortened so that people can get the shovels in the ground on this project, which makes eminent sense.
I am conscious that I could give a long list of improvements that are needed. I am sure that several contributors are about to highlight those they see as vital for their areas. For me, there are two key issues that affect the whole network—resilience and electrification. The Dawlish collapse brought into stark view how vulnerable parts of the main line are. That is not the only issue, but it has given us the opportunity to debate all these other issues. As my hon. Friend the Member for South West Devon (Mr Streeter) said in his foreword to the “On Track” report by the Peninsula Rail Task Force:
“It took a crisis to get here, but this is our chance”.
It is worth looking at the impact that that crisis had. My hon. Friend the Member for North Cornwall (Scott Mann) reminded us of the impact that the railway has on tourism. Some 7% of Torbay’s tourist visitors come by train. After the pictures of the hanging tracks in the media, there was a 20% drop in tourism bookings because of the image it created. That shows that this is not just a transport issue.