Rail Partners’ annual George Bradshaw lecture took place in London on the day the government published its draft rail reform bill, giving Rail Minister Huw Merriman a head start in his head-to-head debate with Shadow Rail Minister Stephen Morgan at the lecture.
Both agreed on the need for a body such as GBR, but differed in what they would ask GBR to do. Merriman said GBR should involve the private sector in train operators, while Morgan promised that a future Labour government would take train operations under national control as their private contracts expired.
Merriman struck an upbeat note in his short presentation, noting that passenger numbers had doubled since privatisation, that 75% of passenger journeys were under electric lines, and that 8,000 new carriages had entered service since 2010. He said the government had put revenue incentives back into contracts with private operators.
Morgan followed with his presentation, in which he said he’d been struck by the passion he’d found from people in the railway industry.
But he noted that government had cancelled the second phase of High Speed 2, it had seen its Network North ideas picked apart, and that its minimum service legislation had been no help to the railways.
Morgan said that rail was in a state of paralysis, with only meddling and tinkering coming from ministers. He attacked the government by saying he could see no co-ordinated or coherent plan. But when asked about Labour’s plan, he said it was coming “soon”, and later added “in the next few weeks”.
Merriman could point to the draft rail reform bill, which would shortly be scrutinised by the Transport Select Committee. However, he could not promise time in Parliament that would lead to legislation to put the bill’s measures into law. Morgan said that Labour would bring forward a railways bill as quickly as possible.
In a ‘Q&A’ session that followed, M
