Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Thursday 18th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We are grateful for that.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

3. What recent progress his Department has made on rail electrification.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Patrick McLoughlin)]

The Government are committed to an extensive rolling programme of electrification; by the end of the decade, around three quarters of passenger miles travelled in England and Wales will be on electric trains. Electrification will deliver trains that are cleaner, quieter, faster and cheaper to operate, with more capacity for passenger and freight customers.

[Mr Buckland]

Electrification of the great western line through Swindon and beyond will allow increased train capacity. Will my right hon. Friend ensure that the need for more seats to allow more passengers to use the service in comfort will be at the heart of the greater western franchise process when it is reopened?

[Mr McLoughlin]

Indeed it will. I know that my hon. Friend has campaigned for greater capacity on that line for some time. I believe that electrification will lead to an increase of 20% in seating capacity on the line by 2018.

West Coast Main Line

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr McLoughlin]

No.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

In respect of the review of the process relating to the Great Western franchise, will my right hon. Friend ensure that the fundamental mistakes about capacity in the previous franchising round under the last Government will not be repeated?

[Mr McLoughlin]

I hope that the two inquiries that I have set up will help us through the unfortunate position in which we find ourselves and, in the longer term, lead to a much more robust franchising system.

High Speed 2 (Heathrow)

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Westminster Hall

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

I am very grateful, Dr McCrea, for the opportunity to speak, and I apologise in advance for not having notified you of my wish to do so. However, bearing in mind the time that we have, it is important that a wide spectrum of opinion on this issue is heard.

As you know, Dr McCrea, I represent South Swindon, which my constituents and I regard as the hub of the Great Western Railway. Swindon is very much a town that looks outwards in terms of its opportunities for growth, jobs and investment. One of the main concerns of businesses in Swindon, the town I have the honour to represent, is connectivity with Heathrow airport. In many cases, that is a more important issue for my constituents than connectivity with the centre of London, which is why the announcement last week by the Department for Transport about the creation of a western connection from Heathrow to the Great Western line was welcome news indeed. Of course, we understand that the control period is up to 2021, but a commitment of just under half a billion pounds is a significant shot in the arm for the economy that I represent. It potentially brings Swindon within 55 minutes of Heathrow airport, if the line from Reading through Maidenhead and Slough to Heathrow is constructed. Electrification would bring greater flexibility and, as my hon. Friend the Member for The Cotswolds (Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) has said, we hope to see a direct service from Swindon and the west to Heathrow airport.

However, the debate today is somewhat more long-term. It is quite a common mistake that we all fall into as politicians in failing to appreciate the amount of time that a lot of these big projects take. We must remind ourselves that the High Speed 2 project is a project that will take 15 years or longer, rather than something that deals with the here and now. Although it is always important to look at the raw facts when it comes to the current operating success of Heathrow, that does not mean that in the medium to long term that position will remain the same. It is important to remember that when we consider this debate and where we are going. We are talking about a long-term future for Heathrow and long-term connectivity and capacity. That is why it is important that the case made so strongly by my hon. Friend is considered very carefully indeed.

I accept that many different permutations and options have been put on the table in the long debate about how we connect Heathrow airport with our rail network. My hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart) was careful to make that point and he is absolutely right to say that neither he nor anybody else has a particular monopoly of wisdom when it comes to the precise nature of such a scheme.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown]

None of us have.

[Mr Buckland]

My hon. Friend says, “None of us have”, and I reinforce that message. However, it is very important for people like me to make a strong plea for the Government to look to the long term and to understand that it is only by achieving direct connectivity to airports such as Heathrow that we will acknowledge the fact that, with the exponential and welcome increase in the use of our railways, the demands upon our network will only become more stringent.

My worry is that we will be standing or sitting here in Westminster Hall in 15 years’ time, and looking back and realising that we have missed a great opportunity to rectify an historical anomaly when it comes to an airport of the significance and size of Heathrow. There it was, having been constructed in the post-war era, and it expanded to meet the huge demand placed upon it, and yet there were no direct rail links to it until many years later, when there was the link to Paddington. Now we have more development, which is welcome indeed. However, those poor rail links to Heathrow are an anomaly of history that we are duty-bound to try to rectify.

That is why it is absolutely vital that, in understanding the potential of HS2 to unlock the north, we must not forget the west. That is the plea I make today, that in any future development of HS2 priority is placed upon the need to connect the major airport for our country with the rest of England and the wider UK. Central London is, of course, an important destination, but the businesses that I represent tell me time and time again that it is Heathrow airport that is crucial to their future success. The importance of businesses’ ability to link with Heathrow should not be underestimated.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown]

I am sorry to keep intervening on my hon. Friends’ speeches; both my hon. Friend and my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart) have made very good points.

The reason that I called this particular debate today was that once the planning gets too far down the line—excuse the pun—and particularly when the hybrid Bill has gone through this place, it will be much more difficult to consider alternatives than it is now. Now is the time that we must urge the Minister to stand back, pause and consider whether there are any better alternatives; there may not be, but she should look to see if there are.

[Mr Buckland]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. When I looked in detail at a map of Old Oak Common—and I am delighted that it will become an important part of this network—one thing struck me very forcibly that I had not realised before, and that is how close the Euston line runs to the Great Western Line. In fact, there is a connecting spur now that allows trains to move between the two networks.

That spur is a metaphor for the debate that we are having today. We are within an ace of getting things right in terms of judging future demand, not only for rail capacity but for the future of our principal airport. As I have said, it would be a missed opportunity, as well as a tragedy, if we were within an ace of getting things right and we then missed the opportunity that, as my hon. Friend says, the hybrid Bill presents. He is right to say that once we proceed down the line of legislation, it will become more difficult to add on various concepts or indeed to get the basic concepts right in the first place. So this debate today is timely, I welcome it and I congratulate him on securing it. I wish to add my voice on behalf of both the west of England and south Wales—let us not forget that region—and the whole growing economy and growing population that need support and proper connectivity with what will continue to be our principal airport for many years to come.

Rail Investment

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Monday 16th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I have met my hon. Friend to discuss some of her concerns about the rolling stock used by some of her constituents on local lines. I take those points very seriously. That is why one of the pots of money we have set aside is to improve the passenger experience. It may seem like a small thing to have adequate toilet provision on trains, but for many people, particularly for mothers with kids, it is really important. My hon. Friend is therefore right to raise this point.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

Businesses and residents in Swindon will warmly welcome the Government’s commitment to a new rail western access to Heathrow. Connectivity is the key. Will my right hon. Friend assure me that with the extension of electrification through to south Wales and Swansea, we will see electric-only rolling stock on the cross-country Great Western line?

[Justine Greening]

We will move to electrify the rolling stock, too. It is one way of ensuring that we keep operating costs down. My hon. Friend’s constituents could see a 30-minute reduction in their journey time to Heathrow. That will benefit not just his area but the whole of the south-west.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Thursday 12th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Norman Baker]

As my hon. Friend will appreciate, this is a devolved matter so I have had no such discussions with Scottish colleagues. There are 2,000 20 mph schemes in England and evidence from the British Medical Journal shows a significant reduction in casualties and collisions of about 40%, a reduction in the number of children being killed or seriously injured of 50% and a reduction in casualties among cyclists of 17% where there are 20 mph limits in London. Perhaps my hon. Friend would like to pass that information back to the Scottish Government.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

Many residents in my constituency, like me, support the increased use of 20 mph speed limits, but we are finding that the time over which designation takes place is still inordinately long. I know that the Government have made welcome proposals, but are there any specific observations that my hon. Friend would like to make to assist my local authority in making speedier decisions?

[Norman Baker]

As I said in response to the initial question, we have made changes as part of the road signs review, “Signing the Way”, to make the introduction of such limits and zones more efficient and less bureaucratic. It is now possible to use roundels on the road rather than repeater signs, which saves money and is quicker to introduce. We are also looking at the requirements on local authorities to advertise road changes in traffic management terms.

Rail Fares

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Wednesday 11th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

Does the hon. Gentleman not agree, however, that the terms of reference for the previous Great Western franchise put the service at the wrong stage, in effect applying a lower common denominator and thereby regressing the service? The new franchise needs to start from the current level and quality of service, so that we can encourage value for money and progress, instead of the rather problematic issues that we have encountered with First Great Western in recent years.

[Owen Smith]

I am grateful for that intervention, which gives me the opportunity to say that it was, of course, the Labour Government who managed that franchise, such that we called in Great Western and demanded the changes that it made and that it adopt special measures.

First Great Western Rail Franchise

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2011 Westminster Hall

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alan, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton) on securing a debate that I think most hon. Members in the Chamber have bid for at some stage. Fortunately, she got lucky just before Christmas, and I am grateful to her for that. I am also grateful to the Minister for attending the debate. We have had many discussions about rail services to and from Swindon, and she knows the passion that I and my hon. Friend the Member for North Swindon (Justin Tomlinson) feel for railways, especially considering Swindon’s unique railway heritage as the hub of the Great Western Railway. We regard Swindon as its home.

To bring things bang up to date, Swindon is a thriving town of 200,000 inhabitants, with rail services that run to the west, the east, the midlands and the south and are relied on by thousands of commuters in the town and region. Connectivity to London, Heathrow and other parts of the south is vital, and time and again that is cited as an important issue to local businesses and passengers.

The draft franchise document will be of huge significance and must meet the aspirations of rail users, both passenger services and freight. It must also be based on a correct set of specifications. In short, the mistakes that were made in the 2006 franchise must not be repeated; we must not step backwards. We must start by looking at the current service, rather than holding a Dutch auction—as my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice) said—to see who can get to the bottom the fastest.

Since 2006, there has been a race to rectify some of the problems that have been created. How many of us have had to endure problems with punctuality, for example, and how glad are we that much has been done to rectify that situation? The recent Government announcement about extra capacity will provide some relief, but we are running to stand still. As I have said, those issues were not properly addressed.

[Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)]

rose—

[Mr Buckland]

I do not have time to take an intervention because other Members wish to speak.

Unless the new franchise delivers a service that is punctual and has appropriate capacity and competitive ticket prices, it will have been a missed opportunity. To put it bluntly: if our passengers do not get value for money, we will have failed.

Peak fares from Swindon remain unduly high compared with those from neighbouring stations and other parts of the network. That seems to be a hangover from another time, and it is causing a competitive disadvantage. Season ticket holders who have to travel at peak hours and are captives of the service now pay in excess of £7,000 a year, yet the service that they receive does not even guarantee them a seat at certain times of the day. That is wrong, and I believe that the terms of reference and the franchise process must specifically address the needs of frequent users and season ticket holders. I accept that smart ticketing may help, but I feel strongly that more needs to be done to cater for that group, perhaps by introducing reserved seating, for example, or by offering an enhanced service that makes people feel valued.

The link between improved rail services and wider economic benefits is clear, and we should factor in such considerations to the franchising process. Just as road schemes are often justified in terms of their wider economic benefit, we must ensure that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Treasury are involved and engaged with the rail service to allow the fullest exploration of any wider economic benefits. Locally, we need strong engagement between the Department for Transport and the new Swindon and Wiltshire local enterprise partnership.

[Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) (Con)]

rose—

[Mr Buckland]

I will give way on a local point.

[Justin Tomlinson]

Briefly, it is not only the LEP that is supportive of such an initiative. We regularly meet different business forums that highlight transport as a No. 1 priority. Swindon’s economic base has grown, owing to businesses relocating there, but the biggest barrier to that is the cost of train travel.

[Mr Buckland]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that local point, and I will develop it briefly. I have been looking at the regional significance of Swindon, and I would like to echo the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham (Duncan Hames) about the importance of developing local services and local branch stations. For too long, obstacles have often been put in the way of the development of local services, because of the needs of the main line. Again, we need to examine the tendering process and ensure that options such as the development of a branch station just to the west of Swindon, which the Minister knows I am passionate about, will become a reality.

There is no reason not to be optimistic about rail in the south-west, because, as we have seen, the growth is exponential. More and more people are using rail services. Therefore, the franchise needs to be an optimistic one. It needs to be based on an upward projection of growth and to avoid the lamentable mistakes of five years ago. I am delighted that the Minister has listened to my protestations, among others, and that the Government have preferred a 15-year term for the franchise, rather than something shorter. My right hon. Friend has been saying yes to many of my requests recently and yes to many of the demands of the people of Swindon. I hope that she will say yes again to some of the observations that we have made about this vital process.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Thursday 23rd June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Villiers]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. He and many of his colleagues in the House have fought a hard campaign for redoubling, and I am delighted that the coalition can deliver that. In addition, the introduction of intercity express programme trains should lead to reductions in journey times and to frequent services, which will benefit the economy in his constituency and surrounding areas.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend will know that local businesses, local MPs—including me—and the local authority in Swindon would like to see the development of a branch station on the Kemble line at Sparcells. What advice and encouragement can she give to me and to local agencies on the development of that station?

[Mrs Villiers]

My hon. Friend has also fought a hard campaign to improve rail services in his area. My advice in respect of that project would be to continue to engage closely with the local authority, which has the leading role in taking forward and funding such projects, and to engage closely with Network Rail and the train operator to see what might be logistically feasible to consider in the future.

McNulty Report and West Coast Rail

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Thursday 19th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for that very helpful guidance.

I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s comments about Sir Roy, who was of course appointed by my predecessor. I very much hope that we can take forward the rail reform agenda with a degree of cross-party consensus, which would be very helpful—realistically, it is asking a great deal to expect that we will agree on everything.

The hon. Lady blames “structural fragmentation” for the high cost of our railway. She obviously has not yet had a chance to read the full report, but when she does, she will see that Sir Roy identifies many causes. However, she seems to be displaying the famous Labour disease of collective amnesia. She might recall the inconvenient facts that her Government created Network Rail a decade ago, and that her Government spent 13 years in power doing nothing at all about the structural fragmentation of which she now complains.

The way forward that passengers and taxpayers would expect us to take for our railway is one of evolution rather than revolution, although that evolution must be rapid. I have taken a conscious decision, which I conveyed to Sir Roy, that I would like to see how far we can go within the existing railways legislative framework rather than spark an ultimately unproductive and, for passengers, entirely unhelpful political debate over the next couple of years on major railway legislation. The idea of Sir Roy McNulty’s agenda is to take forward significant reductions in costs in the railway within the existing legislative framework.

The hon. Lady asked about track-train integration. As she will know, Sir Roy has suggested that we pilot closer integration between train operators and the devolved Network Rail infrastructure operations on the different routes and regions. Sir Roy suggested that the railway is not homogeneous, and that we should go forward at different paces on different sections of our railway. I agree with that general principle. We will look very carefully at Sir Roy’s specific proposals and suggestions on track-train integration, and incorporate a response into the wider rail reform proposals with which I intend to return to the House before the end of this year.

The hon. Lady welcomed the fares review, and I am grateful to her for that. She asked whether the review is a cover or code word for increases in prices, but I say this to her: the Government want an end to the era in which fares rise faster than inflation, but we can do that only by delivering Sir Roy’s savings and by getting the costs of our railway back under control. That prize is within our grasp if we progress Sir Roy’s agenda. To reassure her, I have no intention of ending the system of regulated fares. That is not suggested by Sir Roy, and I know not where she got the idea that I was in favour of it.

The hon. Lady asked me to try to take a collaborative approach with the unions on labour productivity. I would be delighted to do so if an opportunity arises. I was slightly heartened by what I heard Bob Crow say on the radio this morning, although I may have heard only a part of the total interview. He said he was willing to look at proposals for more efficient working practices, which is at least better than his saying that he is not willing to look at such proposals. We must be clear that all players in the industry must change if we are to harvest those savings. The prize for the unions is also big. The railway is a growing industry—it is not in decline, as it was before privatisation, but growing rapidly and robustly—and huge increases in passenger numbers are projected. If we can deal with the problems of the cost base, we could have a hugely successful business for the benefit of British fare payers and taxpayers.

The hon. Lady has won me a small bet by referring to my strategy on west coast franchising as being in “chaos and confusion”, so I am grateful to her for that. In fact, I have today announced an example of open government. We could have progressed with the draft invitation to tender that I published today without further consultation, but I felt that because there has been a material change from the documents that we circulated at the time of the January consultation, it is right to consult again. That introduces a three-month delay, and I do not want the franchise changeover to come immediately before the Olympics, which necessarily means a delay until the latter part of next year, which gives us the opportunity to complete the integration of the Pendolino fleet. We have taken a set of careful and interlinked decisions on the timetable for that franchise, and I hope that, on reflection, she welcomes the approach that we have adopted.

The hon. Lady asked about First Great Western. It is of course true that First Great Western has decided to exercise the break clause that exists in its franchise, which allows it to surrender it in 2013 rather than in 2016. However, before she adopts too strident a tone, she should remember who let that franchise with that break clause in it. First Group has exercised the rights that her Government gave it in that franchise. She might also reflect on the fact that her Government let the GNER franchise and the NXEA franchise before she gets too strident about them as well.

The hon. Lady mentioned profit in the railway. I do not consider “profit” to be a dirty word. I consider that proper incentives and profit-making companies delivering efficient public services can be effective ways of delivering for the taxpayer and the passenger. This Government will introduce a profit-sharing arrangement in new franchises, the like of which does not appear in the current crop of franchises, which her Government let, and the like of which would have prevented situations such as the one on the Trans-Pennine franchise, where profits of 30% on revenue are being earned. We will ensure that the taxpayer gets a fair share of any unanticipated profits that are earned over the lifetime of the franchise. I hope that we all have the same objective—the delivery of a world-class railway service that is affordable for taxpayers and for fare payers. However, to deliver that, we have to drive out cost-effectively and, after Members and others have heard what I have had to say and what the hon. Lady has had to say, it will be for them to decide who will most effectively be able to achieve that objective.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend accept that for many Swindon residents travelling to and from London to work during peak hours has resulted in eye-wateringly high fares for far too many years? What hope can he offer them for the future of peak-time rail fares?

[Mr Hammond]

There are two things that I can say to my hon. Friend. First, if we do not address the challenges that Sir Roy has set out, there will be only one direction of travel—worse services and higher prices. That is not acceptable to anybody in this House or in the country.

I want to make a point specifically about commuter fares and season tickets. At the moment, we have a very inflexible system of season tickets. People buy a season ticket which assumes that they will travel in peak hours every day. Increasingly, people have opportunities for flexible working patterns—indeed, the Government are committed to giving people greater opportunities for flexible working patterns. Smart ticketing technology will allow us to be able to start to recognise people who have a pattern of work that allows them to work at home one day a week or a fortnight, instead of their having to pay the rail fare even though they are not using the railway. That technology can help us to address some of the perverse incentives that season ticket holders currently have to use the railway in peak time when perhaps they do not always need to do so.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Thursday 27th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

The number of bids exceeded the available resources for the second wave of plugged-in places pilot schemes. All the bids were evaluated, and those that represented the greatest value for money were allowed to proceed. The promoters of the unsuccessful bids have been debriefed by the team in the Department, so they will have a detailed understanding of why their bid, on this occasion, failed. I hope that they will be encouraged to resubmit a bid in the next wave.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

2. What plans he has for reform of the rail industry; and if he will make a statement.

[Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)]

8. What plans he has for reform of the rail industry; and if he will make a statement.

[Mr Buckland]

Peak-time and season-ticket commuters from Swindon to London on the main line have had to face significant fare increases this month. Will the Government’s new rail franchising reform programme put special emphasis on the need for greater capacity and fairer rail fares?

[Mr Hammond]

We are committed to fair rail fares. Unfortunately, to support the rail investment programme, we have had to project faster-than-inflation increases in fares for the next three years. However, let us be clear: we have to get the cost of our railway down so that the burden on taxpayers and fare payers can be alleviated in future.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hammond]

Of course the proposals have been risk-assessed. They have been around for more than two years, since before the general election, and there is a long slow-burning fuse behind them. They are now out for consultation, and the hon. Gentleman can and, I am sure, will make forcefully the case for retaining the station in Stornoway.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

T5. Can the Minister give us a likely date for the decision on electrification of the Great Western line to Swindon and beyond?

[Mrs Villiers]

My hon. Friend is a staunch campaigner for further electrification. We have already announced electrification of the lines to Oxford, Newbury and Didcot, and we will shortly announce what further electrification of the Great Western line can be achieved in co-ordination with the linked inter-city express programme.