Railway Capacity

10. What steps she is taking to increase railway capacity.

Transport is central to this Government’s plans for rebuilding Britain and growing our economy. We are committed to investing in the rail capacity needed to support that growth. This means improving performance and timetables to make the best use of the capacity we have, but it also means investing in new and improved infrastructure, such as High Speed 2, the trans-Pennine route upgrade and East West Rail.

I thank the Secretary of State for her answer and welcome her to her place. Ely Junction is a major bottleneck in our rail network and the Ely area capacity enhancement scheme is designed to improve that. If the scheme goes ahead, it could deliver over a quarter of a million extra rail passenger journeys and take 98,000 lorry journeys off the road every year. It will also help the midlands and the north grow their economies, because it will improve freight transport to and from ports, the midlands and the north. To add to all those benefits, the business case stacks up: every pound invested will deliver nearly £5 of benefits. Will the Minister—

Order. The question is far too long— I think the hon. Lady needs to secure an Adjournment debate on the subject. The Secretary of State can grasp the sense of the question.

I understand how passionately the hon. Lady feels about the scheme, and the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield and Rothwell (Simon Lightwood) responded to her written parliamentary question on the subject at the end of November. Projects like this one, in areas like hers, have the potential to contribute to the Government’s plans to deliver economic growth. She will know that the spending review is coming up, so a decision on the scheme and any potential timetable will be subject to the outcome of that review.

I call the Chair of the Transport Committee.

I welcome the Secretary of State to her place and I look forward to working with her.

The original vision for HS2 was to link London with the midlands and the north, and to address the growing capacity challenge on the west coast main line with a whole new rail line. The last Government panicked and mothballed much of the project because of cost overruns on phase 1, thus incurring yet further costs. I welcome the Secretary of State’s commitment to get a grip on the phase 1 cost overruns, but do the Government plan to deliver a rail solution linking phase 1, north of Birmingham, to the rest of the country, thus delivering the Government’s vision to drive growth for the whole country?

I congratulate my hon. Friend on her election as Chair of the Transport Committee. She will be formidable and I look forward to working with her.

I am pleased that my hon. Friend raises the question of the mess we inherited from the Conservative Government on HS2 and rail connectivity in the north. When we entered Government in July, we found a rag-bag collection of half- baked, unfunded spending commitments for rail schemes up and down the country. The previous Government drew up their Network North plans on the back of a napkin. As part of the spending review, we have started the hard work of identifying a realistic pipeline of schemes that is affordable and will deliver better connectivity in partnership with local leaders.

I call the spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat party.

I welcome the Secretary of State to her new position. My party knows her well from her hard work on London’s transport network. We look forward to continuing the constructive relationship we had with her then and with her predecessor in this House.

May I take this opportunity to express my sadness at the passing of my Liberal Democrat transport colleague, Baroness Jenny Randerson? Jenny was a force of nature, intelligent, kind, hard-working and principled, with a mischievous wit and love of life. I learned a huge amount from her in the few months we worked together, and will miss her deeply.

Improving transport links to Wales was an issue close to Baroness Randerson’s heart, and one she regularly pressed in the other House. Will the Secretary of State review the Tories’ decision to class HS2 as an England and Wales project, thus depriving Wales of billions of pounds of Barnett formula funding, and will she commit to a high-speed rail link from Birmingham to Crewe to ensure that mid and north Wales can at least share the benefits of HS2?

May I extend my condolences and those of the Government to the family of Baroness Randerson? I know she was a deeply loved and highly respected colleague to many.

On the hon. Gentleman’s substantive question, I have already met Ken Skates, the Welsh Minister for Transport, and I am working closely with the Secretary of State for Wales to ensure that we bring public transport improvements to Wales, which I hope will be Baroness Randerson’s lasting legacy.