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Crossrail Bill

A wag once told me that I, of all people, prove that one can squeeze a quart into a pint pot—or, perhaps, a pint into a half-pint pot. My hon. Friend’s point is valid, and the hybrid Bill process is designed to study such issues in detail. We have not seen a hybrid Bill dealing with such a project for a long time, and it will be interesting to see whether the procedure has stood the test of time and can cope with a project of this magnitude. Before I finish, I should like to return to the interrelationship between Crossrail and existing networks and the regulatory regime. Many in the industry who have made representations feel that the Bill undermines the principle of independent regulation. They think that its powers could negatively affect Network Rail’s ability to deliver services and that it challenges the wider principle of independent regulation, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead suggested. Taken together, clauses 21 to 26 allow the Secretary of State to override the existing processes and access rights that are designed to ensure that timetables reflect the needs of all route users. They enable the Secretary of State to instruct—not just permit, but instruct—the Office of Rail Regulation to amend existing track access agreements to give priority to Crossrail. That appears to establish a regime not of equity but of preference, and therefore challenges the even-handed approach that the ORR is currently required to display. The existing regulatory structure allows the ORR to operate in a balanced way, taking account of the overall need of the entire rail network, but the Bill fundamentally undermines and changes the ORR’s role in that respect. It will allow control of the Crossrail tracks to be taken away from Network Rail and force the ORR to give priority to Crossrail trains over those of other operators. That would give Crossrail trains exclusive access to half the track capacity on the routes between Paddington and Maidenhead and between Stratford and Shenfield, which would substantially reduce the capacity available to non-Crossrail users on those routes, force reductions in current service levels, and make future growth impossible. A serious knock-on issue of capacity and track congestion flows from the Bill. One of the main representations that we have received, which is very strongly felt, concerns freight. The industry has expressed concern that there is a real risk that large quantities of bulk materials—including aggregates, cement, fuel oil and domestic waste—and high-value goods such as cars and manufactured products in containers will be forced from rail by Crossrail services. It is important, in trying to maintain a cross-party consensus, that the Minister should provide a good rebuttal of that suggestion if he can. The railway industry has made every effort to advise the Secretary of State of its concerns. In reply, he said that"““there are no plans to acquire permanently part of the Network Rail network for dedicated use for Crossrail services””." He also said:"““It follows that Network Rail will operate and manage services on Network Rail’s network including Crossrail services.””" There are none the less concerns that such powers remain in this hybrid Bill. We are concerned that the Secretary of State’s words are not matched by the black and white text of the Bill; and in the end, as we have learned to our cost in many other areas of legislation, what it says in black and white matters most, because that is what courts will decide on, however honest the Secretary of State is. I do not want to detain the House any longer because many Members want to speak. This project has been a long time a-coming. We should like to see a broad coalition of support behind it, but one that is sensitive and responsive to the local needs and concerns detailed by many right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House. Looking to the welcome award of the Olympics to Britain in 2012, we want to hear that that project will not unreasonably delay the Crossrail project. In short, I say to the Government that they should get on with this if they mean it, but if they do not, they should not raise false hopes and lead everyone a merry dance. We should like it to happen; let us make it happen.