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Rail Freight (EUC Report)

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Freeman for initiating this debate and for chairing the European Union sub-committee. This report is on a subject that will keep on going for some time. I am disappointed in the limited number of speakers, because a lot of powerful people sat on that committee and I am sure that they would have had much to add to this debate. The noble Lords who have spoken played a significant part in the committee, including my noble friends Lord Freeman and Lord James, and the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, submitted a great deal of evidence to the committee, and that is demonstrated in the notes on proceedings. It is not my job, as opposition spokesperson, to answer the questions posed by the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw. First, he tempts me to make a commitment on spending, but I could not do that even if I were standing here in the role of shadow Minister for Transport. Secondly, as he admitted, his speech had nothing to do with the report we are debating today—as he was a member of the committee, that is slightly surprising—but has everything to do with road transport. While we acknowledge that that has a role to play in freight, it is not what the report is about. We greatly welcome the report and appreciate the hard work that the committee has done to compile one that is thorough and well researched. However, it is clear from the report that there are problems on a European-wide basis—the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, touched on those in particular—that need to be addressed, hence the need for the recast of the original proposals on the rail freight package to open up the railways across Europe to more freight trains. We have long supported the wider objectives of the first rail package to tip the balance of freight carriage from roads to rail and to lower the environmental impact of the vital movement of freight across countries and borders. That is especially so as in recent years our roads have become more and more congested, with motorways representing 1 per cent of road infrastructure but carrying 40 per cent of traffic. We want to see rail freight become an increasingly attractive alternative to road haulage. That would help reach the commitment set out in the Government’s climate change legislation to cut carbon emissions by a quarter by 2020 and by a half by 2050. Rail freight can help reach this figure as every tonne of freight carried by rail produces at least 80 per cent less carbon dioxide than by road. Therefore, more rail freight would help to tackle congestion. The Freight Transport Association estimates that one freight train can take 50 lorries off our roads, yet in 2008-09 there were 316,684 freight train movements, which was a 4.7 per cent decrease on the previous year’s total. In 2008-09 more than 20 billion net tonne kilometres were moved by freight train. But that was another decrease at 2.6 per cent compared with 2007-08. Therefore, despite what the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, said, this is the second consecutive year that the amount has fallen, meaning that it is currently at one of its lowest levels. So the aim must be to tempt freight from the roads and on to trains. But if this is to happen, significant improvements are going to have to be made. There are clearly serious infrastructure failures, congestion problems and efficiency issues that need to be addressed. However, the proposal for the recast of the first package comes at a time when the second and third railway packages have yet to be fully implemented. Deutsche Bahn has warned that implementing this latest remodelling could delay other initiatives by two years. So my first question to the Minister is: what assurances have the Government been given that the recast will not stagnate progress rather than facilitate it? While attempting a simplification of the rules of the original package, the recast is, none the less, largely a restatement of the Commission’s original intentions. Whatever rules and regulations this legislation introduces, it cannot disguise the reluctance of Governments and the agencies that form the rail freight industry to co-operate and ensure they are implemented. What will the Government do to help foster better collaboration among all those concerned, not only in this country but across those which are meant to be co-operating to ensure a relatively smooth passage of freight across the continent? For a measure so concerned with fair practice and transparency, little thought appears to have been given to how it might be supported by competition law and other related legislation. Do the Government agree that such consideration would lend more weight to this package? I am sure that there is little disagreement among us that the main issue is that rail freight is increased and that the processes which would make that possible are fair and fully understood by all those involved in this sensible policy. We are not sure that the current practice in the United Kingdom alone, never mind in other EU countries, bears this out. The problem is that there is not enough capacity on rail. The amount of freight able to be moved during the day in this country in particular is limited by the encouragement to people to use the train rather than to travel by air or car, so there are more passenger trains. That means that there is not enough spare capacity. In the evenings and at weekends, rail links are suspended or reduced because of repairs and refurbishment. Building high-speed rail lines would have a number of benefits for the freight sector, not least by freeing up capacity for freight on the existing network and reducing traffic congestion by taking lorries off the roads. I will ask the Minister a further question. In the short and long term, what plans are the Government putting in place to prioritise freight movements on UK lines? The report suggests that it would be best to separate operation managers and operating companies for both train and track. While we agree that in a privatised industry separation of function is important, it is as important to create an environment in which the two can work together. We must end the culture of train operators blaming Network Rail in this country and vice versa, and promote easier working relationships between the two agencies. What action are the Government taking to ensure that there is co-operation between the rail and freight operators, and to strengthen and extend the duties imposed on Network Rail to keep them properly informed on matters relevant to the efficient running of services? We agree with the Government and the committee that there should not be an EU-wide regulator, as this would take away too much power from individual nations. The last thing that the Office of Rail Regulation needs is for power to be taken away from it. If anything, it needs more powers to do its job effectively. Does the Minister believe that the Rail Regulator currently possesses the necessary powers to perform its job effectively and to have a stronger say on the governance of Network Rail? Finally, will the Minister tell the House what the infraction was that made the United Kingdom one of the countries that infringed the first rail package? Having told us what it was, will the Minister assure us that the infraction has been rectified—or, if it has not, what problems lie behind it? I thank the committee again for an interesting and influential report.