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East Coast Main Line

I congratulate the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Sir Alan Beith) on securing this debate and providing an opportunity for the House to discuss rail services on the east coast main line in Northumberland. I know that this is a subject of interest to many hon. Members, and I will discuss points of detail further with the right hon. Gentleman if I do not successfully address them in my response this afternoon. The east coast main line is an exceptionally valuable asset in the national transport system. It provides the fastest surface transport between London and the Yorkshire and Humber region, north-east England and Edinburgh. It also provides key links between Scotland, the north-east and routes to the midlands and north-west. It is also of vital importance for freight, particularly as part of the link from major ports to distribution centres in large conurbations, and to coal-fired power stations. Further, it supports the long-distance passenger services provided by the public sector train operator, East Coast Main Line Company Ltd, which pays a substantial premium to Government, thereby reducing the level of taxpayer support needed for the railway as a whole. The challenges faced by the railway industry on the east coast route are principally associated with the volume of traffic, and the reliability of the services. Growth over the next 10 years, despite the present financial difficulties, is expected to be substantial in almost all the markets served by the route. Passenger demand for rail has been growing strongly over recent years. That is due to a combination of several factors, particularly economic growth and increasing road traffic congestion. On many routes, including the east coast, the growth has been stimulated by additional services and ticketing initiatives that have been developed by the train operators to encourage off-peak travel. The most significant use of long-distance passenger trains is for business and leisure travel to and from London. The high number of passengers travelling between London and cities such as Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh is due to the size and significance of those major conurbations, and transport links among them are of national economic importance. In Northumberland, stations at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnmouth and Morpeth are used by long-distance passenger services. As well as serving their immediate towns and surrounding areas, those stations act as railheads for large parts of Northumberland and the Scottish borders that do not have the benefit of rail connections. In addition, stations at Chathill, Acklington, Widdrington, Pegswood, and Cramlington are used by local services, providing important journey opportunities to Newcastle. Long-distance passenger services at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnmouth and Morpeth are provided by East Coast and CrossCountry train operators. East Coast provides direct trains from those stations to London King's Cross and to principal intermediate stations on the east coast main line. CrossCountry provides direct trains to east coast main line stations as far south as York, then stations towards the midlands and south-west including Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol, Plymouth and Penzance. East Coast and CrossCountry also provide direct trains from Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick-upon-Tweed to Dunbar and Edinburgh, some of which are extended to serve other stations in Scotland, including Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness. The current east coast main line timetable does not have a regular repeating pattern and, consequently, train times at stations in Northumberland are at irregular intervals. Broadly speaking, Berwick-upon-Tweed has an East Coast London train most hours and a CrossCountry train approximately every two hours. Alnmouth has six London trains per day and a CrossCountry train approximately every two hours, and Morpeth has three East Coast and three CrossCountry trains per day. Those levels of service reflect relative numbers of passengers travelling from each of those stations. In 2008 Network Rail published its route utilisation strategy—colloquially referred to as RUS—for the east coast main line. The RUS, which was compiled with the assistance of industry parties and other key stakeholders, considered the current and future passenger and freight markets, and assessed the future growth in each. It then sought to show how growth could be accommodated effectively and efficiently, and proposed measures ranging from the lengthening of trains to the provision of additional infrastructure. It recommended that additional long-distance high-speed passenger services should run to and from King's Cross both in peak times, with up to eight trains an hour, and in off-peak times, with six trains per hour. That strategy is expected to cater adequately for forecast growth in passenger demand at least until the end of the RUS study period in 2016. In the longer term, increasing train capacity through the use of new high-capacity, super-express trains and increasing network capacity by rolling out 21st-century signalling technology, in the form of the European rail traffic management system, might create the potential to double capacity. However, it will be several years before those enhancements can be delivered, so the Government believe it necessary to develop and implement an improved timetable in the shorter term, essentially using the current infrastructure. We recognise that any increase in service frequency in advance of infrastructure enhancements is likely to be limited to off-peak periods, when the performance impact of such an increase can be largely offset by improvements to the structures of the timetable, including through adopting a regular repeating service pattern. Additional services to accommodate growth are likely to be necessary first at the southern end of the east coast main line, where traffic volumes are greatest. North of Newcastle, trains are generally less crowded and additional services less likely to be justified in the short term. The Government have adopted a three-stage approach to the development of east coast main line train services. First, the timetable will be changed to provide some additional trains south of York and to adopt a more regular pattern of services, with improved average journey times. The new timetable will be introduced by East Coast in May 2011. Secondly, through their high-level output specification for the rail industry, the Government have specified a package of infrastructure enhancements to increase the effective capacity of the route. Those enhancements have been included in Network Rail's funding from 2009-2014, and will enable additional peak and off-peak passenger services to run after 2014, while preserving capacity to accommodate important freight flows. Thirdly, the Government are leading the procurement of a new generation of super-express trains for introduction to the east coast main line from about 2014. Those trains will have greater carrying capacity and better performance than current trains, allowing services to be speeded up and additional services to run. Although the most critical capacity issues are likely to be south of York, the stations in Northumberland will benefit from each stage of the Government's strategy to improve east coast main line services. The new May 2011 timetable will adopt a more regular pattern of station calls in Northumberland, and average journey times will be reduced. Berwick-upon-Tweed will be served each hour by a fast train between Edinburgh and London, calling at Newcastle, Darlington and York. The journey time between Berwick-upon-Tweed and London King's Cross will be about three hours and 38 minutes northbound, which is six minutes faster than today, and three hours and 40 minutes southbound, which is 23 minutes faster than today. That is because the southbound trains from Berwick-upon-Tweed in today's timetable call at many intermediate stations, whereas in future they will be fast trains normally calling only at Newcastle, Darlington and York. Other stations will be accessible by convenient connections, at either York or Newcastle. Berwick-upon-Tweed will continue to be served by a CrossCountry train on alternate hours, giving through-journey opportunities to Leeds, Sheffield, the midlands and the south-west. Alnmouth will gain a significantly improved service, with a train each hour provided alternately by East Coast or CrossCountry, and running alternately to London or to the midlands and south-west. The total number of long-distance trains per day will increase by 30 per cent., from 27 to 35. At Morpeth the service will increase from six to seven long-distance trains per day in each direction, providing a greater choice of journey times while retaining the current commuting and business travel opportunities. I know that the right hon. Gentleman is concerned about the timing of the first train of the day between Berwick-upon-Tweed and London. At present the first train from Edinburgh to London calls at Berwick-upon-Tweed at 06.29 and arrives at London King's Cross at 10.11. The Government believe that there are significant benefits to be gained from providing a very fast business service between Edinburgh and London, to encourage the use of rail rather than domestic air travel. My noble Friend the Secretary of State for Transport has therefore challenged the industry to provide a morning train with a journey time from Edinburgh to London of less than four hours and an arrival time before 10 o'clock. To achieve that demanding target, the first train from Edinburgh will be given special priority in the timetable, and will call only at Newcastle. Consequently, the earliest service from Berwick-upon-Tweed will be provided by the following train, which is planned to arrive in London at 10.41. I recognise that that change is undesirable from the point of view of travellers from Berwick-upon-Tweed, and options to provide an earlier arrival time are being examined. However, it is an unfortunate fact of railway timetabling that the large overall benefits arising from a major timetable change are sometimes deliverable only by making compromises for some of the smaller traffic flows.