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Rail Fares and Franchises

The hon. Lady makes a very good point. We need to look at legislation in particular; if it needs to be changed, it needs to be changed. In fact, my reading of the law in my discussions with the Department for Transport suggests that there is a need for a change in legislation if we are going to allow East Coast to bid for the east coast main line. I am afraid that that legislation was written for unnecessary and dogmatic reasons in the privatisation proposals from the Conservatives at the time that rail was privatised, unnecessarily shutting down that avenue. However, the point made earlier by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough was that, if East Coast can bid in a way that will produce the best result, let us have East Coast bid. If it does not produce the best bid, it will not win the franchise. I cannot see what will be lost by allowing that process to happen. If we are going to give train operating companies longer franchises and more freedom, we need to look at the constraints that exist that prevent them from operating in a way that might maximise the benefit for the passengers. One of those constraints is undoubtedly the unnecessarily detailed interference in rolling stock arrangements that, I am afraid, the Government seem to be increasingly indulging in. Indeed, the Government seem to be sidelining the rolling stock companies as far as possible, not least in the preparation of the intercity express programme train for the east coast, and they are doing so at vast cost and with dubious benefit. I will take the example of my own constituency. The rolling stock is such that we have overcrowded two-car diesel trains from Ashford to Brighton. It is not possible to get a third carriage, because there are none in the country, and the company—Southern—is not allowed to procure any. That is a nonsensical position for Southern to be in, and it is also unnecessarily restrictive, in limiting Southern's flexibility to improve the service. The service is subject to an ongoing timetable consultation. Whether we should have those timetable consultations is another matter, but we have got one going on now with that service. The consultation is now about reducing the length of route on which two-car trains operate. So, rather than having more carriages, which is what everybody wants, we will have a reduced route, if that option is chosen. In my area, we will also have cascaded dustbin trains from the north London line—clapped-out 313s, which are 1976 rolling stock—replacing 2004 377s. That cannot make any sense, and it is deeply unpopular with my constituents, as Members will no doubt appreciate. However, it appears to be Southern's only option. Having looked into the situation, I do not blame Southern for it, given the configuration of the rolling stock and the instructions that the Government have given Southern about what it can and cannot do. I am afraid that that is an example of the Government intervening unhelpfully in such a way that the rail company will get the blame for the problems, when, in fact, the hand of the Government behind the company is causing them. Southern has also been handed 442 rolling stock, which happens to be quite acceptable. Nevertheless, we are now asking Southern to operate a vast complex of different kinds of rolling stock all on the same section of railway line. That cannot be good for efficiency. The opportunity to mix and match different carriages is limited by the fact that they do not couple. That sort of over-involvement by the Government in rolling stock has not been helpful to Southern, and I suspect that that is mirrored elsewhere in the country. When the Minister replies to the debate, will he say something about the Government's rolling stock plans? I ask that because we have these mythical carriages do not always seem to materialise, and we also had the announcement last year of the creation of Diesel Trains Ltd, which was then uncreated very shortly afterwards. Since then, we have had no announcement whatsoever about what is happening with the rolling stock. When will the Government make a statement on rolling stock, so that we are quite clear what is going to happen with both the 1,300 carriages and the plans to replace the diesel trains that were initially announced and then cancelled? We need to recognise that one of the constraints on the train companies is the control of the timetable, which is with Network Rail. Some train companies have been able to negotiate shorter journey times, particularly when they are in competition with air travel. An example is the Virgin west coast main line service, following the improvements that have been made to that line. Other train companies, particularly those in a captive commuter market, have been less lucky. The hon. Member for Wimbledon will doubtless be aware, as this relates to his own constituency, that the journey time into central London from Wimbledon is now three minutes longer than it was in 1930. That does not seem to be much of an improvement in the 80 years that the railways have operated since then. Let me turn briefly to the fares issue, which was dealt with in the other part of the Transport Committee report. I think that the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough referred to the fact that the cost of travelling by train has risen by 50 per cent. since 1977. In fact, that is the relative figure. It has risen by 13 per cent. since Labour came to power in 1997, although that trend has been apparent under successive Governments. However, the cost of motoring has fallen by 14 per cent. since 1997, and the cost of aviation, which is far worse than rail in carbon terms, has fallen by 35 per cent. since 1997. We have the absurdity that the more carbon that someone emits, the cheaper it becomes to travel, and the less carbon that someone emits, the more expensive it becomes to travel. All three major parties have agreed to a target of cutting carbon emissions by 80 per cent. by 2050. If we are seriously committed to tackling climate change transport must play its part, and we must recognise that financial incentives and disincentives will determine what people do. If it is cheaper to get into the car to go from A to B, people will get in the car. That is the logical response of any individual. So what are the Government going to do to try to ensure that there is more of a relationship between the carbon emitted in transport and the cost of travelling? At the moment, the situation is humpty-dumpty, upside-down and creates all sorts of perverse incentives. What are the Government going to do to get Britain off the bottom of a league table where the distance that someone can go for a tenner on off-peak fares—not on first-class fares, or on anything else—is less in this country than it is in any other country in Europe? Effectively, someone can travel the distance between London and John O'Groats for a tenner if they happen to live in Serbia, but someone in this country can only get from London to Basildon for the same amount of money. I invite Members to decide whether they want to be in John O'Groats or in Basildon, but that comparison between countries is not an edifying one for someone wanting to buy a rail ticket in this country. There are other unacceptable confusions with rail fares. For example, there are the split-ticket arrangements, whereby if someone wants to go from Bristol Temple Meads station to London direct it can cost £74.50, but if they go from Bristol to Didcot and then from Didcot to London it only costs £53.20. How can that be sensible? There are far too many complications in the fare system that need to be sorted out. ATOC has now rightly begun a consultation, but unless it deals with the complexity of fares, as well as the actuality of fares, it will not be sufficient. The Chairman of the Transport Committee referred in her contribution to the increasing divergence between regulated and unregulated fares. That divergence is becoming ever wider, which is unhelpful. For example, there is no point in having a walk-on service, as we now have on the west coast main line—that service runs every 20 minutes, which is fantastic—if the fares operate against a walk-on service and passengers have to book in advance. That does not make any sense. It minimises the benefit of the west coast main line upgrade on which the Government spent so much money. When I went to Warrington Bank Quay, my office produced a return ticket costing £215. When I said, "No, I want to go standard, not first class," they said, "That is standard. First class is much more." A £215 ticket to Warrington and back is not good value. As for the £1,002 first-class open return fare from Cornwall to Scotland quoted in the papers, I understand that the company sold only one ticket, to a journalist who wanted to carry out the journey. Perhaps the Minister has gone on that trip. Why do the train companies not do themselves a favour? Nobody will pay that much for a ticket, so why have it in the book? Why not just cut the price by two thirds? They might actually sell a couple of tickets.