That this House has considered future transport infrastructure projects and the Elizabeth line.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I declare an interest as a local MP who has received donations from two rail unions, ASLEF and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. Also, I am a season ticket holder and in the past was involved in the Paddington rail crash. I secured this debate to celebrate the great success of the Elizabeth line, which I travel on almost every day. I was moved by the Royal Institute of British Architects’s tribute, and its award of the Stirling prize, to the Elizabeth line—nominated for its outstanding architecture.
In today’s debate I hope we can discuss the importance of rail investment and the need for long-term planning. I hope to highlight the Elizabeth line as a national achievement and possibly a model for further investments around the country. I also hope the Minister will be able to provide further details of future investments in other parts of England. I am conscious that I am likely to talk a lot about Berkshire, my own county, and the nearby parts of London that it is so intimately connected with. Two years on is an excellent point at which to reflect on the Elizabeth line and its wonderful benefits to our community.
I hope Members will indulge me this morning, because I have to say my family banned me from going on about the Elizabeth line. I was told by my wife to stop talking about it. I am very lucky to live near London and can travel home to Reading every day —apologies to colleagues who are not able to get home in the evening—but I was admonished by my wife, who told me, “Stop going on about the Elizabeth line. I don’t want to hear any more about it.” However, she and my son and daughter all changed their tune as soon as they had benefited from it; Sarah was able to get back from a show in the west end to a cup of tea in our kitchen in Reading in 50 minutes one evening, and that stopped her ever criticising it again. Now she is as big a convert as I am to that wonderful piece of engineering.
I have my “Matt Rodda’s pub quiz” section of this speech, in which I want to mention a few fun facts about the Elizabeth line. To sum up the scale of what the country has achieved, £19 billion has been invested in this piece of railway, but it has already, in just two years, generated £42 billion of benefits to the economy. There are some 700,000 journeys a day. Every day, the equivalent of the whole population of Berkshire, a reasonably large English county, travels on the line. To put it another way, 4.8 million people travel on it every week—more than half the population of London travel on that one railway line every week. It has generated 8,000 jobs and about 55,000 homes have been built along the line. I want to mention that later in my speech, because the connection between investment in rail, the economy, jobs, housing and growth and the clustering of new industries near railway stations is a really important topic in this debate.
The Mayor of London described the line as a “game changer” for London and the surrounding area, where we have seen 8% growth year on year in passenger numbers. The best way to understand this amazing piece of railway is to ride on it and look out of the window, or to get out of the station underground and soak up what we are passing through. Getting off the mainline train at Paddington—I do not travel on the Elizabeth line all the way to Reading every day—and going on to the Elizabeth line is quite a stunning change of scene. I go into a huge box station, down two sets of escalators and into an enormous modern station, rather like being inside an airport building. It is absolutely huge, several times greater than any normal tube station, with enormous capacity built in for extra passenger numbers. Already, even on the busiest days, the line is soaking up huge numbers of people. The crowds above ground are suddenly distributed below ground and there is a train every 2.5 minutes.
I travel to Bond Street, where, wonderfully, there is a little sign that says “Trains to Reading”—something that seems completely incongruous to anybody who lives outside London. I then move swiftly on to another tube. Looking at the view coming into Reading station the other way, there is now an equally stunning sight that we would not see in many medium-sized English cities or large towns. We are starting to see a significant number of tall buildings, and all those buildings represent a rise in land values, an increase in jobs and new businesses locating near the station, creating jobs, wealth and growth through investment and infrastructure. That is driving the economy of the area and leading to significant migration into Reading from around the UK and around the world, with businesses also relocating.
I saw one example of why that relocation is taking place with my visit to the Ericsson office, in Thames Tower next to the station. This illustrates the employer’s point of view, which is important. Senior managers at Ericsson explained that they moved from a business estate in Surrey to Reading because they wanted access to a much wider pool of workers. The transport connectivity meant they could get much better access to a much wider range of people with qualifications in telecoms, electronic engineering and other related skills they needed in their business by being in Reading. Staff can connect more easily to the midlands, east to London, west to Bristol and south too. I stress that rail connectivity, and the benefits it brings to employers, as an important part of this debate.
At a local level, PepsiCo, whose office is in Green Park near the M4 motorway, is moving to Reading town centre. That movement of businesses into Reading from out-of-town industrial estates could also apply to other areas where there is due to be a significant amount of rail investment—for example on the Oxford to Cambridge line or in the north of England. I hope that is the story when investment and infrastructure are brought together.
It is also worth mentioning the huge environmental benefit. We do not have much capacity in our major towns and cities to build extra roads and getting extra road space is incredibly difficult. There are more people and more vehicles in the country, and all those vehicles on the road at the same time can cause gridlock. Rail offers the ability to generate large numbers of journeys and move huge numbers of people quickly and effectively from one place to another. That can be seen in Berkshire and west London; in fact, the section of the Elizabeth line between Reading and Hayes shows the fastest growth in passenger numbers. Interestingly, it straddles two regional boundaries, where there was previously a stopping service that was nowhere near as effective at getting people from A to B—it was not as fast or as regular—as the Elizabeth line.
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. The Elizabeth line has been a game changer for my constituency of Ealing Southall, and Southall station in particular is very well used. However, two other stations, West Ealing and Hanwell, suffer from a less frequent service than Southall, and that is in the context of increasing development, particularly in West Ealing. There are also more delays and cancellations on the line than would be expected with new rail infrastructure. Does my hon. Friend agree that not only is it important that the Elizabeth line is extended to constituencies such as his, but that the reliability and frequency of the line is improved?
My hon. Friend makes a good point about further enhancements and improvements to the line. I will discuss that later in my speech and I hope the Minister will also have a word to say on that.
On the wider context of the British economy and national achievements in recent years, it is fair to say that we are all proud of Great British sporting achievements, such as securing the Olympics and the performance of Team GB or our achievements in football and other major sports. I believe that the building and the growing success of the Elizabeth line are also an achievement in line with our achievements in sport or science and technology, and we ought to pay heed to that, learn from it and use it to fuel other investments, whether by learning the lessons on planning and infrastructure development or in other ways.
I also want to comment on some of the political lessons learned, on a cross-party basis: once again, it is important to focus on the crucial number of £42 billion of economic growth in just two years. That is a significant number, and we want to see more of that, not just in my region of the south-east of England, but across the country, in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England.
To reflect on what went well and learn some lessons, I would like to go back a bit—you will be pleased to know, Mr Vickers, that I do not want to go right back to 1840, when the Regent’s Canal company, which was very far sighted, first talked about a cross-London route, but I will go back to the 1990s to reflect, in simple outline terms, on the things we got right and the themes that come up when we talk to the people involved. For example, I spoke to the former Member for Greenwich and Woolwich, Nick Raynsford, who was a Transport Minister. The lessons seem to be that it is important that the Government have a vision, and plan and invest for the long term. They must listen to businesses and work closely with them in deep partnership, and they must do the same with local and regional government. Both the Mayor of London and local government across the south-east were crucial to this project—the Minister may want to comment on that later.
I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate. If Members restrict themselves to speaking for about five minutes, we should be able to accommodate everyone.
It is a pleasure, Mr Vickers, to serve under your chairmanship, and I extend my congratulations to the hon. Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda) on securing this crucial debate.
I would like to focus on two pressing issues relating to the current and future state of transport infrastructure in my constituency of Surrey Heath. First, and keeping it local, there are fragmented internal transport links between towns and villages in my infrastructurally left-behind constituency. Bus services, which are vital to some of my most vulnerable constituents, including children and the elderly, are thin on the ground and poorly scheduled. As a result, many people miss rail connections, arrive late at work or school, and struggle to make hospital appointments. Residents report having to spend more than £50 to make it on time for a 9 am hospital appointment, due to the lack of a public transport option. For residents in villages such as Chobham, the problem is particularly acute. They lack any bus services at all. There is no direct bus route connecting railway stations in Sunningdale or Blackwater to key hubs such as Camberley or Frimley.
That lack of integrated public transport has made car dependency the norm in Surrey Heath. Over 56% of households own two or more cars, and 60% of trips under 10 km are made by private vehicles. That is not, I would contend, out of choice but out of necessity. There is simply no viable alternative. That dependency creates severe congestion on major roads such as the A322. If anyone listens to the traffic reports in the morning, they will have heard that letter and those numbers mentioned all too often.
With the national planning policy framework placing a 250% increase on new housing targets in Surrey Heath, that infrastructural challenge will only become more severe, but it is one that our current transport funding and planning mechanisms seem inadequate to address. If we want new homes, which we surely do, and if we want business and economic growth, we simply cannot react to transport deserts and congestion after the fact. We need to anticipate better, look ahead and think proactively.
It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda) for securing today’s debate.
I had the pleasure of serving as the cabinet member for transport in the London borough of Bexley from 2003 to 2006. During that period, the route for what was then called Crossrail was agreed. The Queen’s Speech of November 2004 confirmed that a Bill would be introduced to authorise the construction of Crossrail. Although the announcement confirmed that a southern spur would terminate at Abbey Wood rather than Ebbsfleet, people with long memories like me recall discussions at the time about terminating that spur at Canary Wharf or Custom House. I was quoted at the time, regarding the benefits for residents in Bexley, as saying:
“The most important achievement is getting Crossrail south of the river. If it had stopped at the Isle of Dogs, there would have been no benefit at all.”
My council lobbied to have that section reinstated, but it was not included in the final scheme, although the safeguarding directions for the associated land were retained.
As things stand, the southern spur of the Elizabeth line terminates at Abbey Wood station where, uniquely, the ticket office is located in the London borough of Bexley while the platforms are located in the royal borough of Greenwich. Although the station is located in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare), it is within three quarters of a mile of my constituency of Bexleyheath and Crayford. The route has therefore brought many benefits to my constituents—particularly in the western part of the constituency—providing much faster journey times through to Canary Wharf, the City, the west end and Heathrow. It has also brought benefits for my constituents interchanging at Abbey Wood via Southeastern and Thameslink services from Slade Green. Sadly, the previous Government cut the majority of direct services from Crayford to Abbey Wood, making it difficult to interchange directly. I will continue to campaign for better services by train and bus to reach Abbey Wood from Crayford.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda) on setting the scene and thank him for giving us an opportunity to participate. I want to give a Northern Ireland perspective on where we are. My method of getting here is to travel from London Heathrow or London City airport. Coming into Heathrow, I get the Elizabeth line or the Heathrow Express, depending on time. It is obviously important for us as commuters and for my constituents. I have to mention them because it is not about me; it is about the importance for them.
Thank you for giving me the chance to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers. It is a pleasure to add some thoughts on how infrastructure can work better. Others have contributed on the real importance for their constituents. I may not have a piece of the Elizabeth line, or even a train line, in my constituency, but I am incredibly interested in connectivity throughout the United Kingdom. This time last week we had a debate on flight cancellations and connectivity. I want to give perspective on the importance of airline flight connections and of the Elizabeth line.
I can remember before the Elizabeth line was upgraded. To be fair, sometimes the service was not always dependable. That was a fact of life, so commuters would not take the Elizabeth line if they felt it would not arrive on time or be late setting off, whatever the reason. They would take the Heathrow Express instead. There were occasions when it did work well. When the new Elizabeth line came in, it was much improved. It is important to put on record our thanks for that.
There are many things to boast about in London, such as the global seat of democracy at Westminster, the royal family home of Buckingham Palace, a rich history and successful city ventures. One of the many things in favour of this envy of the world is a rail and underground system that gets travellers where they want to be quickly.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda) on securing this important debate. We may be at different ends of the Elizabeth line, but we have a shared interest in getting the most out of it for our constituents.
My Dartford constituency is one of the fastest-growing communities in the country, with the population of the local authority increasing by 20% between 2011 and 2021, and likely by significantly more in the three years since 2021. Ebbsfleet in particular has grown by over 5,000 homes, with another 10,000 planned over the next decade. Yet the Elizabeth line stops at Abbey Wood, rather than reaching Ebbsfleet as was originally envisaged in the 2003 and 2004 consultations on Crossrail, as it was then known. When my hon. Friend settles down at Christmas for his Elizabeth line quiz, perhaps he could add a question: where was the intended final south-east station in the original Crossrail plans? The answer is, of course, Ebbsfleet. A quick look at the map shows the discrepancy, with services north of the river reaching all the way out to Shenfield but south of the river only as far as Abbey Wood.
I warmly welcome the fact that new residents are being attracted to live in Dartford thanks to the amazing development that is taking place, with many young families looking for comparably more affordable homes and often commuting into London. Despite not being a London constituency, we are dependent on transport links into the capital, which are crucial to economic growth in Dartford and across the Thames estuary, which could be an engine of growth for the new Labour Government.
Five years ago, in 2019, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government provided funding for the C2E Partnership—an informal group of interested local authorities—to undertake a comprehensive study into options for improving transport connectivity between Abbey Wood, Ebbsfleet and Gravesend, to support new housing and employment along that growth corridor. In 2021, those options were refined to just three: first, an extension of the Elizabeth line to Northfleet, Ebbsfleet and Gravesend, sharing existing tracks with National Rail services; secondly, extending the Elizabeth line to Dartford with the construction of new tracks; or thirdly, improving the frequency of National Rail services, and a new rapid bus transit service from Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet. Given the challenges with traffic that my constituency already experiences, I am somewhat sceptical about the third option, and there are significant challenges to sharing track with the existing National Rail services, making the first option difficult.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I thank my fellow Berkshire MP, the hon. Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda), because many of the trains that pass through my constituency land in his, so it is something that we need to have regular discussions about. Our constituents want us to get this right.
Wokingham is well served with choices to get to London, and many commuters take the journey every day. To provide a brief tour, residents in Winnersh and Wokingham are slowly taken by South Western Railway through a suburban route via Waterloo to the Reading line. In the north, Twyford is on the Great Western main line into Paddington, carried by the Elizabeth line and Great Western Railway. It is a blessing that all 8.8 million Londoners are merely 33 minutes away from the many beautiful villages in Wokingham.
The Elizabeth line is a great addition to London and its route through Berkshire, helping to promote a shift from private vehicles and in turn reducing carbon emissions and particulate pollution. However, Wokingham has one of the highest levels of car dependency in England, and the quality of our railways likely explains why that is the case. Our railway services are unreliable and they do not work for passengers.
I thank the House of Commons Library for the following data. Only 66.6% of GWR services arrive on time, below the UK average of 67.5%. South Western is marginally better, on 66.8%, but still below the national average. With that perspective, I must give credit to the Elizabeth line, because 81% of its services arrive on time. In addition, 4.8% of all GWR services are cancelled—again, above the national average. That might not sound too bad on the face of it, but if I forgot my house keys 4.8% of the time, I would be locked out of my house 18 days every year.
For someone travelling on a Great Western service on Monday 28 October, 55 services were cancelled and 301 trains were late. How can we expect people to travel by train if passengers are not getting to where they need to be at the right time and for a reasonable price? As the Government begin a process of nationalising the railways, we need to seriously reflect on how we got here in the first place and how we can ensure that we are never here again, because people in Wokingham will continue to use cars if trains are not working for them.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda) for securing this key debate. I come to the debate as an interloper from the east midlands, although my constituency is not quite as far away as the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) in Northern Ireland, who made some powerful points about the importance of connectivity.
My connection to the Elizabeth line is that its trains were built at Alstom in Derby. Derby has been building trains since 1840. The most recent order of 10 additional Elizabeth line trains to address capacity issues helped train building in Derby, which had been grinding to a halt because of a gap in train orders. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak about the importance of rail infrastructure in the mission to drive economic growth—some hon. Members may have heard me speak about it once or twice before. This debate is an opportunity for us to highlight the importance of infrastructure in bolstering not just our local economies but, in its ripples, the broader economy; in providing jobs and opportunities for skills growth; and in improving physical and social mobility.
There is a future infrastructure project that runs right through Derby: the midland main line, which is the backbone of our rail system. I have long supported plans to continue its electrification, and I was reassured by the answer from the Minister for future of roads, my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood), that the project will go ahead,
“subject to business case approvals and affordability considerations.”—[Official Report, 10 October 2024; Vol. 754, c. 438.]
The benefits are enormous: significant decarbonisation and faster and quieter trains through one of the most densely populated lines in the country.
I was recently invited to speak at an event hosted by the High Speed Rail Group, which was launching its report, “Driving Investment in Rail Infrastructure”. The report called for rail infrastructure to be viewed as
Diolch yn fawr, Mr Vickers. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. Today is an important opportunity to highlight how Wales is losing out when it comes to transport, infrastructure projects and funding. To be blunt, we can only dream of having a £19 billion investment in Wales. We would love that money to come across the border. The unfair Barnett formula means that Wales is missing out on billions of pounds of transport funding. The autumn Budget announced that Wales’s Barnett comparability factor for transport had fallen yet again to 33.5%—it was 80.9% in 2015. That is due to HS2 and Network Rail being included in the calculations for Wales, which is eroding the funding available to us over time. That is not the case in other parts of the UK. Academics from Cardiff University note:
“At 95.6% Scotland and Northern Ireland continue to benefit from full Barnett population shares for transport funding that can be used for electrification, opening new lines, or to meet any other spending demand. This is a funding inequity that has long-term consequences yet continues to be ignored at the UK level”.
I remind hon. Members that the Barnett comparability factor for Wales is 33.5%, yet for Scotland and Northern Ireland it is 95.6%. Given that Wales receives roughly 5% of the spending that England does, the fall in our comparability factor means that we are now effectively receiving a third of a fifth of what is spent on transport in England. Does the Minister believe that is a fair way for Wales to be funded? The Government are set to renegotiate the fiscal framework with the Welsh Government. Will that include looking at improving Wales’s transport comparability factor?
While the erosion of Wales’s comparability factor may be new, the lack of investment is a historic problem. It is estimated that Wales has received approximately 1% to 2% of rail enhancement investment, despite the fact that the Welsh route makes up approximately 10% of the UK rail network. Professor Mark Barry of Cardiff University estimates:
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I must thank several people, or I will never live it down. In particular, I thank MPs from Berkshire: I want to single out the former Member for Maidenhead, now Baroness May of Maidenhead, who played a very important role in this project and was an incredibly important constituency neighbour when she was in this place. I also thank Lord Sharma and other MPs from the Thames valley, including the former Labour MPs for Reading West and Slough, among others. I thank the lead members for transport on Reading Borough council, including Councillor Tony Page and Councillor John Howarth, and leaders of Reading Borough council Liz Terry, Jo Lovelock and David Sutton.
I thank the local business community, including investors from outside our immediate area who have done so much to regenerate areas near the station—for example, the team investing in Station Hill are playing a really important role—and many others, such as the two corporates that are moving into the area near the station. I would particularly like to mention Nigel Horton-Baker, who brought the business community together, and I thank the various local enterprise partnerships and chambers of commerce that cover the Thames valley.
I also highlight the importance of the business and civic community in the wider region. When the Elizabeth line was envisaged—this is a bit of a detour down a branch line, but it is very important for Berkshire—there was no guarantee that it would come to Reading. The original plan was for it to go as far west as Maidenhead, but Reading borough council built a coalition of local authorities across the three counties of Berks, Bucks and Oxon. I see that the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) is here, and I am sure he agrees; he may want to speak about the importance of local government collegiality across the Thames valley. That cross-party group of local authorities, led by all three main UK parties, wanted Reading to be the western terminus. It was so important that they agreed and worked together. I obviously have a vested interest as the MP for Reading Central, but the idea of Reading’s being the western terminus made complete transport sense, as it is a major transport hub and a point at which the railway divides north and south, to the south coast and the midlands, and a key point at which it splays out westwards, to the far south-west, Wales and the midlands.
I am proud to be the MP for Reading Central, and it is wonderful to be able to commend the work that has been done locally. In the time that I have left, I have some questions for the Minister from me, our local business community and other stakeholders. I particularly want to explore the notion of further electrification. One of the benefits of the Elizabeth line is that it is fully electric, which saves huge amounts of money in the long run, although there is obviously an up-front cost. Under the previous Government, there was a reduction in the amount of electrification from what was originally planned. I have had requests for more north-south improvements in electrification in our area, between the south coast and Oxford. There has also been some interest in introducing more semi-fast services on the Elizabeth line—in other words, trains that do not stop at every station but move more quickly between the major stations. Some people have raised further station development.
A western rail link is an important adjunct to the arguments about the Elizabeth line. The line has created a lot of connectivity and an east-west corridor between Berkshire, Essex and Kent, but people going to Heathrow have to approach London and go out again. Many colleagues from Wales and the west country—particularly south Wales, Bristol and further west—have, with me and other colleagues, lobbied for extra connectivity that would allow people to get on a train at Cardiff or Bristol and go straight to Heathrow, reducing surface transport and pollution near the airport, and freeing up local roads. It would also bring huge flexibility for commuters working at the airport, particularly residents of Slough and west London, where many airport staff live, although some live as far away as Reading.
The other point I would like the Minister to comment on—I realise it is an ongoing discussion—is the work to smooth the transition relating to the development of Old Oak Common. I am pleased the Government are committed to investing in the link between Old Oak Common and Euston; that is an important milestone and a national priority for all of us. However, in my area, and particularly to the west of London, in Wales and the west country, there is a great deal of concern about the blockading of Paddington to allow work to take place at Old Oak Common. That starts at Christmas time, and I hope the Minister can say some reassuring words about it. I know he is interested in those matters and wants that work carried out in the smoothest way possible.
It has been a pleasure to speak this morning; I am grateful for your indulgence, Mr Vickers, in allowing me to commend some of my local government colleagues and others in the business community. I hope the Minister will be able to answer some of my questions. I also thank colleagues for attending in such large numbers and from such a wide range of political parties, and I look forward to hearing everybody’s speeches.
That brings me to my second point, which concerns transport links between Surrey Heath and London. Frankly, in Surrey Heath we pray for something like the Elizabeth line. Camberley, the largest market town in my constituency, is hugely underutilised by commuters, despite being only 28 miles from the centre of the capital. Camberley station served just 789 passengers daily in 2022-23—not, I would argue, because of a lack of demand for a high-quality commuter service, but because the slow, fragmented service on offer forces residents to access the rail system from outside our borough altogether. It is a sad reality that, in 2024, the journey to central London from Camberley now takes one hour and 15 minutes, involving at least one change. That is longer than the same journey in the 1920s, a century ago.
Most residents, including me, find it more practical to drive many miles to rail stations outside Surrey Heath, such as Farnborough, Brookwood or Woking, to access the faster, more direct routes to the city. Surrey Heath’s transport system is failing its residents, keeping children out of school, and stifling local economic growth, and it is now unable to keep up with the demands placed on it by new house building targets.
Like many other infrastructurally left-behind places in the UK, Surrey Heath urgently needs investment in fast, efficient and direct rail links to London, synchronised bus schedules and better rural transport options. Those improvements have the potential to tackle congestion, lower emissions and support sustainable development, while enhancing the environment and the quality of life for residents. Just as importantly for a Government with a focus on economic growth, improved infrastructure can act as the oil in the engine of economic growth, and I hope this Government see that as an investment worth making for our shared future prosperity. Surrey Heath businesses want and deserve access to game-changing infrastructure such as the Elizabeth line, and Surrey Heath residents would, I am certain, make for hugely vocal converts and give the hon. Member for Reading Central a run for his money.
Passengers interchanging from Slade Green and other stations to its east have to rely on less frequent services to undertake this change. There remains a strong case to extend the Elizabeth line to Ebbsfleet in order to serve residents in the thousands of new homes built there, in order to interchange with high-speed services and hopefully, in the future, with reinstated services to mainland Europe.
The Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet corridor covers the local authorities of Bexley and Gravesham and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Jim Dickson). The corridor has the potential to build on its existing strengths and diversify its economy, but it needs to improve transport links to make that happen. Although the corridor has large areas of underutilised brownfield sites, many sites are complex and cannot be brought forward for housing by the market alone, because of viability challenges, in part caused by poor transport connections, which limit land values. Significant evidence has been assembled to show how additional housing can be delivered by transport investment making the local area more attractive. An extension is also expected to support jobs growth due to enhanced connectivity and additional commercial floor space and through jobs to support the new population, which would support the regeneration of both Crayford and Slade Green.
The C2E Partnership was formed in 2016 as an informal group of authorities to promote an extension of the Elizabeth line beyond its planned terminus at Abbey Wood and towards Ebbsfleet. It comprises stakeholders representing local communities in the area, including the London borough of Bexley, Dartford and Gravesham borough councils, the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, Kent county council, the Greater London Authority and the Greater North Kent Partnership. The partnership has lobbied since its inception for funding to develop scheme options. It was successful in securing funding from Government for the development of a strategic outline business case, which was submitted to the previous Government in October 2021.
Despite that, there has still not been a formal response to that business case. The project continues to form a key element of the transport strategy for growth of the London borough of Bexley, being referenced in the Bexley growth strategy and the recently adopted local plan. That is echoed in the policy documents of the wider partnership, as well as regional partners, such as the Thames Estuary Growth Board and Transport for the South East.
The partnership’s ask is for further resource to refine the options presented in the business case and identify a preferred scheme for development to detailed design, and the securing of appropriate powers for delivery. The case for such investment is considered to be stronger than ever, in the context of housing and economic development imperatives. I shall continue to call for this extension to be delivered in the years ahead. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.
I live in the countryside, where there are no bus connections, and have a diesel vehicle as my method of transport. In the city, tube trains, especially the Elizabeth line, and the Heathrow Express, are my main ways of connecting with my job, as they are for others. Does anyone need a car in London? If I lived here, no I would not, because tube trains are so handy, once someone gets into the way of it. When I first came here, I found it quite hard to fathom how tubes worked. It is no secret that I am a country boy. Before I was an MP, I think I had come to London four times in my life. Coming to the big city was almost like a holiday, in that I was somewhere different from back home.
My point is that we get used to the tube and understand how it works and its connectivity, and the Elizabeth line is part of that. Enhanced connectivity is what everyone here wants: they want people to be able to get where they need to go in a cost-effective and timely way.
Connectivity needs to go further than the London underground; it must be everywhere in the United Kingdom. I know that is not the Minister’s responsibility, but it is tied to the connectivity of the Elizabeth line, the tube and the Heathrow Express, which is important to people like me and my constituents who come into Heathrow then into the city centre. Connectivity must relate to all parts of the infrastructure, because people fly in and then use the trains to get here.
I will give some examples that relate to my constituents. Last week, the planes from Northern Ireland to London were cancelled; we had an urgent question about it last Tuesday. I am not sure if British Airways has learned its lesson because, although it agreed to a meeting, on my way home on Thursday—guess what?—the plane was cancelled. It is at the stage where I phone the ladies in my office to say, “Will you check to make sure that the flight is on?”
If we do not have flights, and their connectivity with trains, we do not have a system that works. On behalf of all the tourists on planes from Belfast, Scotland and elsewhere in the United Kingdom, I say to the Minister: if the planes do not work, it does not really matter if the train works. It must be right for those who are coming for appointments, as the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Dr Pinkerton) referred to, and for disabled people, with wheelchair access on the tube.
We have so much to offer as a nation—there is so much investment from other countries—but our connectivity needs to be dependable, whether that is taking the tube between Paddington and Westminster or hopping on a flight from Belfast to London and then on to the tube. We must do better and put it all together: flying and the trains.
Unfortunately, since that narrowing of options in late 2021 when the business case was submitted to the last Conservative Government, we have seen little progress. The idea was revived earlier this year by Local London, a collection of nine local authorities in north-east and south-east London, which included it in research it commissioned on the region’s long-term transportation needs. The London borough of Bexley and my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) are keen to see the work progress, as he so ably and articulately set out.
I urge the Minister and his colleagues across Government to look at how we can get on and finish the Elizabeth line as originally intended to grow the economy, boost productivity and improve lives across our region. That means extending it to Ebbsfleet, where the links with high-speed and international services would create an ideal interchange. That must be a priority when considering the future of the Elizabeth line.
I ask the Minister this: how do the Government intend to increase the reliability of service on the Great Western main line, and will he explain the role better infrastructure plays in that? What particular attention has been given to improving the reliability and speed of the Waterloo to Reading line? When can my constituents expect genuine change from Great British Railways? Finally, I support the proposal to build a western rail link to Heathrow airport. Heathrow airport, the Thames Valley chamber of commerce, local MPs and many other organisations have backed the proposal, so Network Rail should get on and build it. Will the Minister confirm that the Secretary of State’s infrastructure review will include considering a western link to Heathrow airport, and will the Minister for Rail meet with me to discuss the proposal?
“strategic long-term investments that drive sustainable development”,
and I agree. As the Institution of Civil Engineers has said, decision making needs to give weight to the benefits of infrastructure investment.
Rail infrastructure is about more than just the tracks that the trains run on. It is the rolling stock that carries the passengers or the freight. It is about the skills of the workforce who build the tunnels, wire the overhead lines and guide multi-million—often billion—pound projects from conception to the big business case review through to line energisation. It is also about the train drivers, cleaners and ticket booth operators; the impact it has on stations and the surrounding areas; and our efforts towards decarbonisation, taking cars off our roads and cleaning our air.
The decisions we take on how money is invested , which projects go ahead and how infrastructure is put in place must be taken with a long-term view because it impacts everyone. After so many years of stop and start and boom and bust, the industry is in desperate need of stability and clarity. Investors need to feel that there is support for projects, the businesses in the supply chain need to be able to anticipate work and retain skills, and workers need to know that they have jobs for the future. That forward planning builds sustainable growth and development.
Rolling stock manufacturers such as Alstom are key examples of the need for stability. As I mentioned, Alstom builds trains in Derby and is a major employer in our city, but thousands of jobs at Alstom and in its supply chain were lost because of the production gap earlier this year, which was in part due to the HS2 delays. We had a day where 1,000 years of welding experience walked out the door.
The additional Elizabeth line trains are a huge relief. Businesses such as Alstom and other manufacturers need an ongoing pipeline of work, new train orders and network upgrades to bring the growth, jobs and skills that our country so desperately needs.
“In terms of rail enhancement, in the period from 2001 through 2029…that the current constitutional arrangements have cost Wales a minimum of £3Bn in Barnett consequentials”.
Those sums could be transformational for our infrastructure in Wales. They could fund a programme of electrification and build new lines north to south, finally connecting our nation, rather than commuters having to travel hundreds of additional miles via Shrewsbury or Crewe. To add insult to injury, at the recent Budget the Chancellor announced several electrification and rail infrastructure projects across England, such as the trans-Pennine route upgrade and the Oxford-Cambridge rail, and she confirmed that High Speed 2 will end at Euston. Meanwhile, there was nothing for Wales, and no commitment of the £4 billion that we are owed for HS2.
The Welsh Labour Government have argued for the full devolution of rail; as has been noted here today, there is a strong financial case for rail infrastructure along the lines of the Scottish model, to address the broken funding for Welsh rail. What discussions have the UK Labour Government had with the Welsh Labour Government on the devolution of rail? Does the Minister agree with his Labour colleagues in Cardiff that rail should be devolved? The Government cannot continue to ignore this issue. As everyone knows, Plaid Cymru will continue to push for fair funding for our railways and the full devolution of rail for Wales. Diolch yn fawr, Cadeirydd.