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Lockerbie Rail Services

I congratulate the hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) on securing this debate and providing an opportunity to debate rail services at Lockerbie. I genuinely understand his comments on behalf of his constituents, yet in many of those comments are implied the competing demands of meeting the needs of the travelling public from all parts of the United Kingdom and of meeting economic demands, whether in Scotland or elsewhere. In the short time available, I hope to address some of the issues that the hon. Gentleman has raised. The performance of today’s railways, which have improved significantly in recent years, represents a strong success story. The focus on the punctuality and reliability of Network Rail and train operators has sharpened. Investment is at record levels and after years of managing decline, the industry is having to deal with unprecedented growth in demand for rail travel. The Government are giving high priority to providing additional capacity, through the provision of additional carriages and new infrastructure. The hon. Gentleman referred to the £8.8 billion that has been going into the west coast route modernisation project, which is now drawing to a close. The project has renewed and upgraded the key main rail line and it links some of the key population areas of the country. It must accommodate not only many long-distance passenger trains, but numerous local and regional passenger services. The west coast main line also handles 40 per cent. of the nation’s rail freight. The work of rebuilding has taken place on a live railway, but it has been and is a success story. It has been a team project in that it brought together Network Rail, the train operators and those who carried out the work. The £8.8 billion of public money was to provide a railway that is safe, allows trains to operate reliably and has headroom for growth in both passenger and freight traffic. Capacity is being provided for 80 per cent. more long-distance passenger trains and a 60 per cent. increase in freight traffic. Those are the parameters for meeting the demand for services. One important feature of west coast route modernisation is to secure the best return for taxpayers on the investment. Another is to ensure that rail contributes the maximum possible to the overall transport network of the country. The issue is rightly about getting passengers to use rail in preference to other modes of transport, and experience to date indicates that that is being achieved. However, difficult choices have to be made and they include allocating resources where they can deliver the best possible service. It should also be noted that the Government have required the drafting in of 19 additional tilting 125-mph diesel Voyager trains, the use of five new trans-Pennine diesel trains and the delivery of 30 additional 100-mph electric trains, on top of the new Pendolino fleet. Much of the new timetable planned for December 2008 is focused on the optimal use of those resources, the efficient deployment of which is vital to deliver additional seats for the rapid growth in train use. The longer-distance services will be able to run much faster, and much effort is going into ensuring that the weekend services will, at long last, be similar to those of weekdays. Passenger transport on the west coast main line continues to grow, and has done since the introduction of the revised timetables in September 2004. Overall, there has been an increase well exceeding 50 per cent. and in some cases the growth has been almost 80 per cent. Our predictions are that that will treble over the next period to 2012, with the route generating more than £1 billion in annual revenue. Additional business has been generated at many stations along the west coast route, including Lockerbie. However, it is not a station where business is likely to grow significantly when compared to the other locations on the line. Let me pick up on some of the points that the hon. Gentleman made about the number of services. There are currently 15 northbound and 11 southbound services across the day, which are provided by Virgin West Coast and First TransPennine Express. Of the southbound trains, two are for London, four for Birmingham and four for Manchester Airport, with a First Scotrail service terminating at Carlisle. Typical journey times outside the peak are more than four hours to London, more than three hours to Birmingham and two and three quarter hours to Manchester Airport. Northbound services are split evenly between Glasgow and Edinburgh and travel times are between one hour and one hour and 15 minutes. The new timetables that are being introduced next month take advantage of completion of the west coast route modernisation project. They are also designed around the constraints governing rolling stock availability and getting the most out of the new infrastructure. In particular, the services will, for the first time, start to become competitive with air travel services for London and Birmingham to Glasgow and Birmingham to Edinburgh. Compared with pre-upgrade services, Anglo-Scottish journey times will be reduced by some 80 minutes. According to the December 2008 timetable, Lockerbie will be served on a broadly two-hourly pattern, with nine northbound and 10 southbound trains—one of the requirements for Lockerbie put forward by Scottish Ministers in terms of their aspirations for a broadly two-hourly pattern of services at off-peak times. That is an improvement on the pre-project situation in 2003-04, when nine northbound and seven southbound trains were offered. The London train will be re-timed to call early in the morning with two return evening services, allowing business travellers to make a day trip. The hon. Gentleman referred to arrivals at Glasgow and Edinburgh before 9 o’clock. First TransPennine Express had intended that the 06.58 departure from Carlisle would stop at Lockerbie at 07.17 and reach Edinburgh by 08.32. However, following the discovery that the service could not be accommodated at Edinburgh Waverley station, resources had to be redirected to form the 06.03 Manchester to Edinburgh train, which calls at Lockerbie at 08.15 and arrives in Edinburgh at 09.17. Those are some of the challenges faced in meeting a complex set of demands by the travelling public.