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Rail Freight (EUC Report)

My Lords, I always feel that anybody speaking in the gap should start with an apology for interfering with the orderly flow of debate, but as a member of Sub-Committee B of the European Union Committee there is one point to which I should like to draw attention, which walks through the report without actually disclosing itself fully. I wholly agree with what the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, said about regulation, but we need to recognise the comment made by Brian Simpson, quoted at paragraph 45 of the report, and that of Network Rail, that the present European Union regulators, in the absence of an EU, pan-European regulator, represent an, ""unbalanced group at the moment"." One might have said the same about the England cricket team at the outset of the summer but they still won the Ashes. One hopes very much that these regulators will similarly rise to the occasion. They do, however, have a very big task before them, because the whole of this issue was encapsulated beautifully by a member of Sub-Committee B, who said that rail freight in Europe is drinking in the last chance saloon. That is very much the way that it is at the moment, as we see it. If we are to have a successful European rail freight system, it has to start by becoming thoroughly competitive, which means having the right access, and the right costs of access, on a pan-European basis to make it work. But you have to acquire that access at a national level and it will involve participating and interfering in the national access of other states as well. That will not only be a price issue but will also become a safety issue because the access may impact adversely on the maintenance and service requirements of other states. Very careful and insightful regulation will be needed to make it work. At present, in the absence of a pan-European regulator, it is very hard to see how there is going to be an umpire capable of taking the difficult decisions to resolve those problems. Just as we won the Ashes with an unbalanced group, I hope very much that the word "premature", which appears in the final conclusions about pan-European regulation, is not read as "permanent".