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Kent Coast Railway Line

I thank my hon. Friend for that. I am sure that the Minister will want to deal with my question in a moment. The new timetable, which was designed to integrate the high-speed lines with the classic network, has clearly left several problems. We must not fall into the trap of assuming that nothing can be done, or that it is entirely Southeastern's fault. When I wrote to the company last summer, it replied that""the service pattern for the timetable was set by the Department for Transport."" The main reason why Southeastern has been unable to respond to the needs of its customers is that its hands have been tied behind its back by the overly tight specifications of the franchise agreement, which was set out by the Department. I am delighted that the Government are accepting the need for longer franchises, but, as I said, longer franchises will not work unless they come with fewer specifications. That begs a question that the Minister may wish to come back to in his remarks: are officials in the Department still writing timetables? Conservatives want to see an end to the absurd practice of civil servants setting detailed timetables across the network. That cannot and should not be right. The Minister will remember that one of his many predecessors, the hon. Member for Glasgow, South (Mr. Harris), told this Chamber, and confirmed it in a written response, that there were 16 civil servants in the Department writing detailed timetables. The clear message from today's debate is that this is not a failure of high-speed rail but of the Government's franchising process. I certainly believe that the Department's role in franchising should be stripped back, and that the focus should be on overall policy decisions rather than what we see today, which is detailed intervention that so often leads to a diminution of the service for so many people. Today's debate presents us with a conundrum. We all want high-speed rail services, but we do not want them at the expense of classic services. The future success of the high-speed network in this country will depend on the ability to ensure that it does what it should do, which is to create extra capacity for many people. This debate also touches on rolling stock, which so often causes constraints in providing the service that so many people require. I would be delighted if the Minister would address the questions about rolling stock that I have asked him in two previous debates, which he will remember. Indeed, when does he expect a more detailed rolling stock plan to be produced? I look forward to the Minister's response, and to his saying that he accepts that this is a real and genuine issue, and that the concerns raised by my hon. Friends the Members for North Thanet and for Faversham and Mid-Kent are not a closed book. I hope that he will tell us that operators need to be given greater freedom to react to the demands of their customers. I am convinced that, if he is prepared to accept that, the problems that my hon. Friends have so eloquently set out this afternoon can be addressed.