Rail Investment

Kelvin Hopkins Excerpts

Monday 16th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I think it will mean a lower cost railway and lighter trains which are more efficient and reduce maintenance costs. They are more reliable trains and they open up better opportunities for scheduling than we have had in the past with diesel trains. It is a huge investment which will massively impact on my hon. Friend’s local community and it opens up the possibility of seeing whether we can extend that line further towards east Anglia in the coming years.

[Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State give her backing in principle to rail freight infrastructure capable of carrying full-scale lorries and lorry trailers on trains between the channel tunnel and Britain’s major conurbations?

[Justine Greening]

I am not sure whether I can give the hon. Gentleman the categorical in-principle assurance that he wants, but I am sure he will welcome the fact that a huge chunk of the investment will help get more freight off the road and on to the railways, and of course the electric spine project is one of the key ways in which we can do that. There is also investment in Felixstowe so that we can continue to get containers by rail. Importantly, one of the other pieces of work in which we are engaged is improving the gauge so that it can take bigger containers than it is currently able to take. That will open up easier travel by rail for the container market.