Railways Bill (report stage)

Lord Faulkner of Worcester:

My Lords, I intend to intervene only briefly. I fully support the remarks made by my noble friends Lord Morris of Manchester, Lord Burlison and Lord Snape and the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw. In Grand Committee, we had a good debate about the role of the PTEs and their achievements and I do not want to go over that ground again.

There is one aspect of the Government's approach which I find most puzzling. If the PTEs had demonstrably failed the people they exist to serve, if they had not provided new rail services, if they had not opened up new opportunities for people to travel by train and to leave their cars at home, and if they had provided a service which recorded huge levels of dissatisfaction among the public, one could understand why the Government would want to take away their powers as co-signatories to franchises. However, it is demonstrably not the case that they have failed.

As the noble Viscount says, there have been some irritations on the part of train operating companies over the speed with which some of the franchises have been signed. That is normally because the PTEs are attempting to wring out of the franchisees—the train operating companies—a higher level of service than that which they wanted to provide. An example is the delay of the signing of the Scottish franchise and the wish of the Strathclyde PTE to continue the service of through trains between Glasgow and Leeds—an aspiration with which I have considerable sympathy.

One should look at the record elsewhere. Last week, I was in west Yorkshire and saw the Airedale line at first hand. It has benefited from new rolling stock and has achieved huge increases in ridership. Now 75 per cent of the people travelling to Leeds in that corridor do so by train as a result of the improved service, the re-opening of stations, increased safety at stations and an attractive package of fares. That is the kind of railway service which we should be encouraging. I am afraid that if the co-signatory powers are removed, it will be much more difficult to achieve that.

I hope that my noble friend will take account of what has been said today and of what was said in Grand Committee. I hope that in the final stages of the Bill he will indicate that the Government accept the logic of what we have all been saying.

© Lords Hansard 4 April 2005