South Western Railway

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I am confident of that. Indeed, if the noble Lord is a regular user of the Portsmouth line, he will know that the signalling has been replaced in the last three weeks, which demonstrates significant investment in what was an unreliable system. The purpose of the forthcoming Railways Bill is to create Great British Railways so that, for the first time in over 30 years, the railway is run as a holistic whole by people who understand how to run a railway for the benefit of passengers and freight. That is better than the system that I have inherited and have had to work with for many years.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, have not a lot of the problems with the conditions of the rolling stock arisen from the ludicrous decision to put out the work to the leasing companies, for which it was a massive licence to print money? Certainly, neither passengers nor the Treasury benefited from that.

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

Although it might be possible to agree with my noble friend, on this occasion that is not correct. The old South Western trains have been at the end of their lives for some five years. Indeed, I found when I arrived there an extraordinary plan to spend £25 million trying to resuscitate rusty trains to keep them in service because the new ones have been in the sidings for five years. That is a fault not of the rolling stock companies but of management and the previous Government.