Viscount Stansgate
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of capacity on the East Coast Main Line.
Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)
My Lords, the December 2025 timetable has provided more than 60,000 extra seats across the east coast main line each week, with faster services between London and Edinburgh and a third train per hour between London and Newcastle. Network Rail is leading development of a long-term strategy for the route, which will incorporate this Government’s plan for Northern Powerhouse Rail, which was announced last week, and the commitment to develop a business case for opportunities provided by the Leamside line.
Viscount Stansgate (Lab)
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that encouraging Answer. It is encouraging to hear the progress being made, just as it was to hear a reference to the Leamside line last night in the Statement on Northern Powerhouse Rail. Does my noble friend agree that the progress being made is made possible by the fact that Network Rail, LNER, Northern and TransPennine Rail are now publicly owned, and are able to work together and co-operate without the morass of contracts that have characterised a privatised railway with poor outcomes for passengers? In short, does the Minister agree that the experience of the east coast main line gives us a glimpse of what Great British Railways could—and I hope will—achieve in future?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
My Lords, the short answer is yes, I do agree. The £4 billion public investment in the east coast main line infrastructure in trains had stalled. Although Network Rail writes the timetable, it lacked the authority to implement it. Requiring ministerial approval amounted to an excessive level of central control that GBR will remove. Encouragingly, public sector collaboration, free from contractual constraints, enables successful delivery. The result is a major uplift in services, supporting economic growth and increasing the availability of cheaper LNER tickets, thanks to more trains and seats.
Baroness Pidgeon (LD)
My Lords, capacity on both the east and west coast main lines is stretched, which is why High Speed 2 will make such a difference when it opens. When will the Government publish the project reset, including the revised opening period and costs?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I cannot give the noble Baroness a specific answer, as I am sure she is probably aware, but we will communicate that as soon as we are able to.
Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)
My Lords, I do not often find myself at odds with the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, but I am on this. Indeed, yesterday I came up to London and my EMR train from Spalding to Peterborough was cancelled. I had to seek an earlier train, and then, on that Peterborough to King’s Cross line, there were no services between Lincoln and no services from York, because all trains were cancelled due to late working on engineering works on that line. I am afraid it is very disruptive, and if you have to come to London regularly each week, it is surprising how frequently the train service does not run to time or to capacity.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I set off yesterday from Leeds and I was given the warning that there might be delays because of the overrunning of engineering works. Actually, it did not affect my journey at all. Quite frankly, with the sort of engineering undertakings that are happening, I am amazed that overruns do not happen more often. There is an enormous amount of work to do on the railways. It is obviously very disappointing if you get delayed and if there are cancellations, but everything the Government are doing is working towards improving rail services for the travelling public in this country.
Lord McLoughlin (Con)
My Lords, it is very encouraging to hear what the noble Baroness is saying. Can she tell us when these planned engineering upgrades that she is talking about were given the go-ahead, and when they were given the sign-off? I think she will find it was some years ago, under the last Government.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
It is my great pleasure to inform the House that the noble Lord and I have a very long and chequered history—
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
Specifically dedicated to improving rail services in this country—that is the sadness of my life over the last however long.
Of course, I understand exactly the point that the noble Lord is making, and it would be churlish of me to say that there have not been any improvements. But we have to have a step change. Too many people are suffering as a result of not having the connectivity we need. Given the noble Lord’s previous role at Transport for the North, he well knows how much investment in public services would mean to the economy and, most of all, to the people across the north of England.
Lord Grocott (Lab)
My Lords, it is great to hear my noble friend’s tributes to the railway engineers, who keep the trains going at the same time that they are trying to build in many places new rail developments—which is a much harder job than building a new railway on a completely open tract of land. We may be very good, as we are, with those kinds of engineers. However, on the project for HS2 and similar proposals, particularly the line to Manchester, can my noble friend say whether the department has learned any lessons from the failed attempt to build a high-speed rail network? Virtually every other country in Europe is doing it, as are many in Asia, but we seem to lack the capacity. We really ought to be able to learn some lessons from this.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
My noble friend makes an excellent point. I pay tribute to everyone who is working on the trans-Pennine upgrade. That project is phenomenal and demonstrates that we can deliver on time and on budget when all the key people pull together and work together. As my noble friend says, the performance that we have had in the past is simply unacceptable. Of course we need to look at that, learn lessons and make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes in the future.
Lord Beith (LD)
My Lords, does the Minister realise that, since the new timetable was introduced on the east coast main line, there has been no room to deal with delays such as those caused by broken rails, signal failures and points failures, none of which can be blamed on LNER as they are all the responsibility of Network Rail. Are lessons going to be learned about the introduction of this timetable, which took several years to bring about but reduced services from stations such as Berwick and Durham and left real problems coping with delays?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I will make sure that we follow up the comments that the noble Lord has made. It was my responsibility to be heavily involved when the timetable changes were introduced in 2017, and I would say that, overall, this introduction has gone exceptionally well in comparison to what was experienced in the past. Of course, there will be difficulties, and I will endeavour to get answers to the question that the noble Lord asks.
Lord Moylan (Con)
My Lords, it has turned out to be a livelier Question than I had expected. I am very grateful to the Minister for being here to answer these detailed questions about broken rails, particular services and so forth as she has today, and she has local knowledge as well, but will she or another government Minister still be here to answer those questions when Great British Railways comes legally into existence? She will agree, I am sure, that the Bill being considered in the other place removes Great British Railways almost entirely from parliamentary and ministerial scrutiny, with the only power left to the Secretary of State being to sack the chairman of the board. Is that really an acceptable way forward?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
We have had many robust debates through the passage of different legislation in this House and I look forward to continuing to do so. Yes, in answer to the first question, we very much do intend to be here to see through the development of the legislation. Of course, it is going through the other place at the moment, and I look forward to the debates that we will have when it comes to our side.
Lord Berkeley (Lab)
My Lords, would my noble friend the Minister agree that the welcome growth in passenger numbers on the east coast main line was mainly due to the introduction of Lumo, an open-access competitor?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
It is very interesting that the east coast main line has three open-access operators. There are lessons to be learned from the experience that we have had. Clearly, they have brought an incredible amount. Some 20% of services on the east coast main line have open-access operators. We need to look and learn, and see what we can gain from it.