North Wales Main Line

These investments will level up north Wales by attracting investment and higher-skilled jobs. That will transform inward investment and remote working for the whole of north Wales, including my constituency of Clwyd South. It will further promote the advanced manufacturing cluster across north-east Wales, Cheshire and Wirral, which is vital to my constituents. It is one of the top 10 global advanced manufacturing clusters, and has an economic output of £35 billion per annum. Better-quality, faster rail access to London will unlock further investment and growth in that sector, as well as providing an opportunity to open up the vital north Wales tourism sector. Areas such as Clwyd South have developed an international reputation for tourism. I am pleased that Clwyd South’s successful bid to the UK Government’s levelling-up fund has further strengthened the promotion of tourism, and I am keen to see it flourish further.

Finally, such investments will deliver benefits of decarbonisation through electrification, as my hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy said. The electrification of the north Wales line is key to reducing the carbon footprint of the traffic, and vital to our meeting our decarbonisation commitments. The infrastructure of north Wales has been overlooked and underfunded by the Welsh Labour Government in Cardiff Bay for far too long. As was mentioned earlier, the last major step change was the Conwy tunnel, which opened in 1991—many years ago—and was the biggest construction project in Europe at the time.

Today, the rolling stock on north Wales lines is ageing and struggles to deliver a reliable service. It is unreliable and frequently overcrowded. The north Wales coast line has been relegated to unofficial branch line status by a failure to provide a reliable direct service to London. Roads offer little relief: they are overwhelmed daily, and Telford’s crossing to Anglesey, the Menai bridge, is closed for three months of emergency repairs. The Welsh Government’s response has been to suspend all new road building and improvements. It is imperative that residents, communities and businesses throughout north Wales are prioritised for investment to make a step change in rail services.

I need the Minister’s help. Businesses and people across Anglesey need a reliable and frequent train service to Holyhead. Indeed, Sir Peter Hendy’s Union connectivity review highlighted the strategic significance of the transport infrastructure across north Wales for the UK through its connections to Northern Ireland and the Republic via Holyhead, the busiest port in Wales and the second busiest ro-ro port in the UK.

Avanti West Coast has a woeful track record and reputation in north Wales, bringing misery on a daily basis to thousands of people trying to get to work or school, or simply trying to live their lives. Like many others, I was shocked when, at the beginning of October, the UK Government awarded First Trenitalia West Coast Rail Ltd a short extension to its current contract to continue to operate the Avanti West Coast contract until 1 April 2023. That was incredibly disappointing for me, my colleagues and my constituents, who have suffered train services that are well below par for the past two and a half years. Avanti West Coast has committed to delivering around 90% of its pre-pandemic timetable from 11 December, with five direct trains a day from London to Holyhead and four at weekends. I have no faith that Avanti will be able to deliver that timetable.

The issue seems to be an overreliance on the good will of Avanti drivers volunteering to work overtime. I respectfully ask the Minister to join me in meeting Avanti train drivers to hear from them directly about their working conditions and why they are not volunteering to work overtime. I would be happy to facilitate the meeting in Holyhead, where my home is. I would be grateful to hear from the Minister in considerable detail how he plans to ensure that the north Wales service will be of an acceptable standard after 11 December, so that I can report back to the many constituents who have contacted me in frustration. I ask that Avanti’s performance is closely monitored over the next few months and that no further extension is granted on 1 April 2023 unless there is a significant improvement in its services.

I believe that Avanti West Coast does not have the capacity or competence to provide the sort of service that my constituents and people across north Wales expect, and I very much hope that the Minister will heed these representations. I have applied for a Backbench Business debate so that we can have a proper, cross-party, three-hour debate on the Floor of the House to share the frustrations of our constituents and push the Government for assurances that Avanti will deliver the reliable and frequent service our constituents demand and deserve.

What about HS2? Ministers have thrown the project into utter chaos. As cuts loom, there is considerable concern that the number of trains per hour planned to run from north Wales to Crewe will be drastically reduced. As I am sure the hon. Member for Aberconwy would agree, we cannot stand idly by and let that happen. We need answers now. I hope the Minister can clarify that such cuts will not take place in preparation for the Chancellor’s autumn statement this Thursday.

Finally, let me turn to the Avanti in the room, as highlighted by the hon. Member for Ynys Môn. It is astonishing that Ministers have rewarded Avanti with an extension to its franchise. Ask any Avanti passenger who has waited for trains that never come, been stranded miles from home, or been rammed like cattle into carriages, corridors and toilets, “Should Avanti be rewarded with more public money?” and they will say, “Of course not.” With the fewest trains on time, failure to train new drivers and more complaints than any other operator in our nation, Avanti has stripped back services to and from north Wales to virtually nothing. Some days, there is just one train to London. To call it a skeleton service is an insult to skeletons. Why on earth was such failure rewarded?

My hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy has highlighted the findings of Sir Peter Hendy’s Union connectivity Review. The Government are grateful to Sir Peter for his work, and we are considering his 19 recommendations carefully. As Sir Peter has highlighted, in most cases his report does not contain new detailed infrastructure proposals. Instead, he points the way to further work, which should better identify where, when and what to invest in for the best results for people across the United Kingdom.

In anticipation of Sir Peter’s recommendations, the Government set aside further funding at spending review 2021 to add to the £20 million previously allocated to take forward some of this essential development work. The funding will set us on the right path to developing the best infrastructure development options to strengthen our main transport arteries for people and businesses across the UK.

We have been discussing Sir Peter’s recommendations and the opportunities for development funding with the devolved Administrations to identify the solutions that work best for the people of the UK. We are pleased that the Welsh Government agree with Sir Peter’s recommendations and we are discussing with them how we can best support his work.

My hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd South mentioned the impact of HS2 on north Wales. HS2 will free up capacity on the existing west coast main line and enable faster journey times from the rest of Great Britain to both north and south Wales via new interchange opportunities. Journey times from many places in north Wales to London could be reduced to about two hours and 15 minutes, changing at Crewe station.

Hon. Members have ably addressed the reduction in Avanti services. I share and recognise their frustration, but want to be clear about the reasons behind the reduction and the action the Government have taken to mitigate the effects on passengers where possible. It is long-standing practice for rail operators to use a degree of rest-day working to operate the normal timetable, to the mutual benefit of companies and staff. It gives companies a degree of flexibility to cover for things such as staff sicknesses and holidays, and it gives staff the opportunity to earn additional money should they wish.

Avanti, in common with many other companies in the rail sector and beyond, has experienced a range of difficulties in responding to the pandemic. Each rail operator is unique and the impacts fell differently across them all. In Avanti’s case, they included a higher than expected retirement rate, restrictions on training that required two people in a cab and a number of drivers who needed retraining when they returned from an extended period of shielding. Approximately 15% of Avanti’s driver workforce were unable to work for varying degrees of time during the pandemic due to being clinically extremely vulnerable and requiring partial or full retraining on returning to work. That contributed to a position where the company was relatively dependent on rest-day working, as has been pointed out.

None of that explanation is to exclude the operator’s responsibility to manage its operation effectively, but it is important that we hold it to account for what it is responsible for, and do not seek to hold it to account for matters outside its control. The Department is considering that carefully, under the terms of the contract.

On 30 July this year, Avanti experienced immediate and near-total cessation of drivers volunteering to work passenger trains on rest days. That left Avanti unable to operate its full timetable and facing a choice of whether to try, day by day, to run what it could, with the inevitable short-notice cancellations, or to reduce the timetable to a level operable without overtime.

That was a difficult and invidious choice, but I am sure that Members will appreciate that the impact of short-notice cancellations is particularly bad for passengers. It is not possible for passengers to plan around them as they do not know in advance what will be cancelled, so it leads to late journeys and overcrowded trains. While that is bad for anyone, it is particularly bad for passengers who may have booked assistance, be unable to stand or be travelling with children, for example.

The alternative—reducing the timetable—is also highly disruptive, and that case has been made, but it is honest with passengers and gives them a chance to try to make alternative plans. That approach has reduced cancellations of about 25% of the service in late July and early August to about 5% today.

Members in today’s debate have made the point that the impact on north Wales has been particularly severe because the majority of through trains to London have been replaced by a shuttle to Crewe. Avanti has sought to mitigate the situation by adding more stops at Crewe on its other services to improve the interchange, but I acknowledge the point and the particular impact the situation has had on passengers travelling to and from north Wales.

It is important to be clear that many of these factors are not in Avanti’s control. Crucially, this improvement will require the support of the trade unions. It is important to modernise the railway to phase out old-fashioned ways of working, improve people’s journeys, help make trains more reliable and create savings that can provide funding towards a pay rise for staff.

Finally, I turn to the contract that Avanti has with the Department, which I know has been a matter of interest for many across the House. On 7 October, the Department entered into a short-term extension of six months to 1 April 2023. That short-term extension will allow the Avanti side of the business to roll out its recovery plan. The Department will consider Avanti’s performance, while officials finalise a national rail contract for consideration.

I conclude by thanking you, Ms McVey, and all hon. Members. I hope they have been reassured by the updates I have been able to give them. I look forward to working with all my colleagues across the House and in north Wales, so that we can give them the rail services they need.