West Coast Main Line

Chris Webb Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Westminster Hall

[Chris Webb (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Connor Naismith) for securing this debate—although I feel it is slowly turning into that famous Monty Python “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch, with all of us declaring our woes with the west coast main line.

My constituency was built by the railway. When trains first arrived in 1846, they transformed a small coastal community into a mecca of British tourism. By 1911, Blackpool Central station was the busiest in the world. By 1936, 650 trains a day moved in and out of our town. It was the golden age for Blackpool, and the golden age for rail travel.

Since then, our train services have drastically changed, but our need for connectivity has not. Whether for access to tourism, education or jobs, Blackpool relies on a railway system that works. Our town welcomes more than 21 million visitors every year, from families to conference delegates and people looking for fun and escapism, as they always have in Blackpool. These people should be able to get to Blackpool without relying on expensive parking or wondering whether their train will arrive on time—or whether it will turn up at all.

A reliable, affordable and frequent rail service would help us to cut emissions and grow the local economy, and it would give our visitors the experience they deserve. A reliable service is also essential for my constituents, especially Blackpool’s young people. Far too often, promising young talent is forced to move away just to access better work or education, in a significant brain drain that reinforces Blackpool’s many challenges.

A functioning west coast main line would make a daily commute to Manchester, Liverpool or Preston a real option for them, instead of a logistical gamble. It would mean that our talent could stay in Blackpool and still have the world at their fingertips. That is not the reality today. Delays, cancellations and overcrowded trains have become a headache we just cannot shift.

As someone who regularly travels to Parliament on trains from Blackpool, I am sadly all too familiar with the stresses of commuting from our town, which is literally and often figuratively at the end of the line. I hear from constituents every week who have been forced to accept and even expect delays, cancellations and overcrowding. They want action, and without delay.

In 2024, some of the operators serving the west coast main line were missing their timetable targets by more than 20%. That is not a bad day in the office; that is a broken system. Yet under the last Government, contracts were renewed and dividends were paid, as we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra). Passengers were told to settle for less.

I am proud to say that this Labour Government are not willing to settle. Bringing our railways back into public ownership is a vital first step to fixing the mess—sending the clear message that this Government are on the side of passengers and staff, not private shareholders. Great British Railways will give us a single accountable body to run the system in the public interest—a railway run on a long-term plan, with fewer delays, better timetables and services that connect communities instead of cutting them off. That is what my constituents deserve and what this Government will deliver.

I also welcome the immediate steps to fix the system we have inherited: restoring performance, updating infrastructure and driving electrification. These are the foundations of a better system that Great British Rail can build up. I hope it will deliver the passing loop on our south line; I know previous MPs for Blackpool South have been calling for that for nearly 20 years.

Reform cannot be something that happens only in big cities or major commuter routes. As we upgrade transport in the north, we must ensure that towns such as Blackpool are not forgotten simply because they are at the end of the line. I ask the Minister to reassure my constituents that, while we work towards long-term rail reform, she will hold operators to account to ensure performance is improved in the short term. Will she ensure that Blackpool will not be left behind as decisions are made about infrastructure, investment and national strategy?

Blackpool is a town with rich history, but also a town that, with the right investment, has a promising future. We have strong ambition and huge potential. Let us build a transport system that matches the aspirations of the people it serves, and let us make sure Blackpool is no longer seen as just at the end of the line, but at the beginning of something better.