Train Services: Extreme Weather

Debate between Caroline Voaden and Richard Foord

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Westminster Hall

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

It is good to see you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) on securing this debate. It is one that I have tried to secure on a number of occasions, because the west of England line runs through my constituency, passing through the towns of Axminster, Honiton and Feniton. I was struck a moment ago by my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) describing how extreme weather has become, simply, weather. That was very well put. In this debate, we could talk about not extreme weather but the impact of climate change on our transport infrastructure.

It is good to see the Minister for Local Transport in his place, because he has been fantastic at securing new railway stations for mid-Devon and Somerset at Cullompton and Wellington, respectively. He does an excellent job in his role, and that is why I am pleased to have the opportunity to talk about Liberal Democrat policy as well as the west of England line. The line connects Exeter with London Waterloo and goes via Salisbury. Much of that line, certainly west of Salisbury, is single track. When there is a disruption or delay, that means that the whole timetable gets thrown. Understandably, a lot of residents in east Devon have contacted me about that in the dry hot summers that we have had in the last two years. South Western Railway describes the main consequences of that dry weather as “soil moisture deficit”, which is a euphemism for embankments that are dry. That is largely due to the route sitting on clay. When prolonged heat and drought remove moisture from the soil, the clay shrinks, the embankments move and the track moves, too.

In those conditions, it would be dangerous to carry on as normal. Speed restrictions have to be imposed. We saw the consequences of extreme weather on a railway line that does not have any disruption to the schedule in Lewes earlier this year, when a Southern train derailed. The problem in that case was “track geometry irregularity”, which I think is a euphemism for rails that have bent. In seriousness, I accept that safety has to come first. But we have to acknowledge that while safety is a priority, it is having severe consequences on the people we represent.

I want to consider young people who are trying to build their futures. One person from Awliscombe wrote to me to say that his 17-year-old daughter could no longer get to her apprenticeship for 8 o’clock in the morning, because the only train reaching Exeter at that time had been cancelled. Without any replacement bus service, he and his wife are having to make a 40-mile round trip by car to get their daughter to work. That is not an isolated incident: roughly 550 college students travel on the west of England line to Exeter college. A father from Offwell told me that his daughter, who has just started, is subjected to train cancellations and delays, and often spends two to three hours every day waiting for a train home from Exeter. A mother from Honiton explained how, since both the 7.30 am train and 7.45 am bus have been cancelled, there is no way for students to arrive on time for their 9.45 lectures.

Students are relying on the service to access their further education, but it is also affecting working people. Shelby Gittens is a dental hygienist from All Saints near Axminster. She has been prevented from reaching Exeter reliably before the start of her working day. Due to the delays, her office has had to reschedule her 9 o’clock patients indefinitely until the matter is resolved. Given that Devon is one of the UK’s foremost dental deserts, that is quite a serious consequence for people trying to get dental work in Devon.

[Caroline Voaden (South Devon) (LD)]

Forgive me for being late, but the railway did not want me to be here for the start of this debate. My hon. Friend talks about the impact of delays on the line on working people; we in the west of England are going to be impacted for two years or possibly more by the works at Old Oak Common. For the tiny sum of £12 million, which is just over half of what is being spent every day on HS2, highspeed wi-fi could be put on every one of the 94 trains on the Great Western Railway network. If it was, all those working people like me who get stuck on delayed and slow trains going down to the west of England would not mind an extra 10 or 15 minutes on the journey time, because it would be productive. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government need to fund that project?

[Richard Foord]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. Time is not wasted on a delayed train if there is a good wi-fi connection for the workers onboard, so I recommend that investment in the main line. On the west of England line, which is the poor relation to Great Western, I have heard from constituents who have been trying to get to colleges, schools and businesses, and from patients and families, about the effect it is having on the local economy. Those disruptions often hit the most vulnerable in our society the hardest.

Kathryn Wilkerson from Sidmouth told me that over the course of six journeys to London for work that she made in the summer heat, only one featured working air conditioning. She explained that on multiple occasions when she was on packed trains, she had to pause her journey and get off the train due to dizziness and to avoid fainting from heat exhaustion. Kathryn pointed out that this means that train travel in the heat can be dangerous, and that the rolling stock needs to be updated to adapt to the climate change that we all see.

Students, workers and the vulnerable all tell the same story. People I represent are right to ask why a line of such importance for the network as a whole remains so vulnerable. People can accept that temporary measures may be required because of soil moisture deficit, but this is no longer a temporary measure—it is the second year in a row that a schedule has been introduced for months at a time meaning that trains are only running once every two hours.

Weather-related delays across the country have cost around £370 million over three years from 2023-24, but that is just the narrow economic consequence on the railways, not the wider consequences for all those people whose anecdotes I have described. The Liberal Democrats believe that passengers deserve railways that withstand the climate conditions that we are set to face. Too much of our infrastructure, particularly in the west country, still relies on Victorian earthworks and drainage systems and assets that were not designed for today’s climate—and of course they have been subject to the Beeching cuts. Instead of bringing those facilities into the 21st century, the last Conservative Government left behind a legacy of underinvestment and crumbling infrastructure.

I have corresponded with Ministers in the Department for Transport, not least with Lord Hendy in the other place, about the west of England line. The specific thing that I have sought from Ministers is investment into passing loops on the line. To make an analogy with the road, passing loops are like pulling over to allow an oncoming vehicle to come the other way. I understand from Lord Hendy that if we were to make the case for investment in passing loops in control period 8—the period of 2029 to 2034—we could potentially see them developed at Tisbury, Feniton, Whimple and other places on the west of England line, to enable trains to pull over and to run on a more frequent basis, even when experiencing soil moisture deficit.

What further can the Minister recommend that we do to secure those passing loops in control period 8? More generally, how will the Government accelerate investment in climate resilience so that we can get ahead of the changes we know are coming down the track and make sure that our students, workers and most vulnerable members of society get the transport links they deserve?

Agriculture: Government Support

Debate between Caroline Voaden and Richard Foord

Wednesday 29th April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Richard Foord]

If I were an uplands farmer represented by my hon. Friend, I would know that I had a fervent advocate in him. He is right to raise the issue of commoners; I spoke with one last Friday who said that the sustainable farming incentive IT system has yet to be adapted for payments to people who farm on common land. I had the same experience with people who I represent in Luppitt on the Blackdown hills in Devon.

[Caroline Voaden (South Devon) (LD)]

Many farmers are relying on SFI, but it closed to new applications in March and is yet to reopen, and there is no clarity about the future budget. Delays in payments to those who have agreements have caused significant concern to many of my constituents who have faced cash-flow issues. Does my hon. Friend agree that greater clarity must be provided to farmers on the future offer across various environmental schemes, as well as a commitment to improve the efficiency of payments?

[Richard Foord]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing attention to that issue. Last year, farmers were devastated by the overnight closure of the sustainable farming incentive, which came with no notice. I welcome the Secretary of State’s pledge at the Oxford farming conference in January that there would be no further unexpected closures of that scheme, but I did not get the sense in my conversation last week that confidence has been restored fully since that overnight closure of SFI.

Small producers are disproportionately disadvantaged under the new SFI scheme. Payment caps raise serious issues about long-term farm profitability. The system appears not to have been designed around farmers and what they want, but rather around bureaucracy and administrative convenience. The Liberal Democrats would invest in agriculture, including an additional £1 billion a year to support sustainable, domestic food production, improving our skills, resilience and supply, rather than leaving our farmers at the mercy of global markets.

Thirdly, I would like to talk about planning concerns. As I understand it, there are delays in the planning systems across local authorities that are preventing farmers from doing the right thing. Last week, I talked to one who had applied for a cover on a slurry store and was still waiting, eight months later, for a verdict on whether he could go ahead and make the modification.

Broadband and Mobile Connectivity: Rural Areas

Debate between Caroline Voaden and Richard Foord

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Caroline Voaden (South Devon) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Frome and East Somerset (Anna Sabine) for securing this debate.

Too many people in South Devon are still being cut off by poor digital infrastructure. Airband promised to deliver, but was allowed to fail spectacularly across my constituency.

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

My hon. Friend mentions Airband. Building Digital UK wrote to me last month to say that villages and premises had been de-scoped because Airband had withdrawn from the contract. Does she share my view that BDUK ought to find alternative providers that can fill the gap left by companies such as Airband when they give up in places like Branscombe, Churchill and east Devon?

[Caroline Voaden]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I totally agree. It is outrageous that a company like Airband is allowed to pick off the easy bits and then walk away when it comes to the more expensive bits of the contract.

In Staverton, most residents have no mobile signal at all. Although mobile providers claim high coverage levels, the claims do not align with the reality on the ground. In Diptford, broadband coverage is at best patchy. I myself used to have to have a satellite connection on the roof of my house to connect to a station in Italy in order to get internet connection.

NHS Dentistry: South-west

Debate between Caroline Voaden and Richard Foord

Tuesday 12th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Richard Foord]

The hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead has clearly done her homework. It is quite staggering that recommendations from that long ago are still not implemented.

[Caroline Voaden (South Devon) (LD)]

Lord Darzi said in his review of the NHS that

“urgent action is needed to develop a contract that balances activity and prevention, is attractive to dentists and rewards those dentists who practise in less served areas”

such as mine in South Devon, where not a single dentist is taking on NHS patients any more. Would my hon. Friend agree that we urgently need a timeline for this work to be done?

[Richard Foord]

Yes, I think so. My hon. Friend is right to point to some of the recommendations in the Darzi report. I was encouraged to see reference to neighbourhood hubs, where perhaps we can have delivery of primary care, such as NHS dentistry, nearer to the constituents we represent.