Allison Gardner
Main Page: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)Department Debates - View all Allison Gardner's debates with the Department for Transport
West Coast Main Line
Allison Gardner Excerpts(2 days ago)
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Connor Naismith
I thank the hon. Member for that intervention; it is an understated point, but connectivity is the lifeblood of our economy. If someone cannot get from A to B, they cannot access the opportunities on offer. As well as improving key arterial rail routes like the west coast main line, we need to see local services to smaller stations improve.
Dr Allison Gardner (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)
As my hon. Friend will know, Stoke-on-Trent sits on a side branch of the west coast main line that feeds a conurbation of over 400,000 people, many of whom work in and travel regularly to Manchester, London or Birmingham. Does he agree that any future development of the line must not impact negatively on direct services from Stoke-on-Trent to London and from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester, which previous plans for HS2 threatened?
Connor Naismith
I agree with my hon. Friend that we should be in the business of improving services for our constituents, so we must, wherever possible, ensure that we protect direct services in whatever plans we bring forward in the future.
The challenge is clear, because the west coast main line is statistically the least reliable railway in Britain, with fewer than 50% of the trains running on time—a situation that will only get worse.