GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY BILL. (By Order.) (Hansard, 24 March 1937)

§ Lord Apsley
The reason this Bill is under discussion before the House is that a number of hon. Members, including myself, objected to it the other day. The reasons why we objected are not in order in a discussion on the Third Reading, for they have nothing to do with the Bill itself. They can be found in a speech given on the Air Estimates by the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Perkins). There is, however, a matter which is incorporated in the Bill about which I should like to raise a question. It concerns more the Report stage, and it was for that reason, among others, that I also objected when the Bill came up on that stage. The question I want to raise comes under Clause 5, which deals with the 2996 No. 1 Railway which is to be built 27 chains west of Denham and is to go for some miles into the urban district of Uxbridge. I would like to ask the promoters of the Bill whether a station will be built on this railway to serve Northholt aerodrome which is adjacent to it, and, if not, whether any arrangement will be made to serve Northolt or Heston aerodromes. The question has been raised on many occasions by the Air Committee of feeding aerodromes direct by railway to central London. It is becoming more and more evident that road transport is impossible and is becoming worse every year. We were informed by the Air Ministry on one occasion that the Great Western Railway were considering under the 1936 Act extending the No. 1 Railway to Heston aerodrome. I should be glad to know if that extension is to take place. We were assured many years ago that it was to be made, but I can see no preparations for any work being started. If it is not to be made, will the railway mentioned in this Bill be an alternative so that there will be a station for Northholt aerodrome which will make it within easy reach of the centre of London, and whether in that case any negotiations will be entered into with the Air Ministry with a view to the transfer of the service squadrons now stationed at Northolt to Croydon, which I understand is to be abandoned as a civil airport in favour of Swanley. We would thus be provided with two good airports, one to the East and one to the West of London, connected by electric trains, to the centre of the metropolis.

§ Sir Robert Horne
I am Chairman of the railway company promoting this Bill, and in order that I could give an accurate answer my Noble Friend might in all courtesy have apprised me of the questions he was going to ask. I have had no notice of them, and I could have been in a position to furnish accurate information if I had been apprised of them. I am not in a position to give a reply with confidence, but I would venture to give this reply, that the railway company have been very anxious to promote air services in every possible way. I think it was the first railway to adopt air services. As to the matter which my Noble Friend raised I have a distinct recollection—I am not entitled to go further with regard to the information I would 2997 otherwise have desired to convey to the House—of certain approaches which were made to the Great Western Railway by the Government in this matter. With regard to that we have furnished plans, and the matter has remained there.

§ Lord Apsley
I apologise to my right hon. Friend. I would have given notice of my question, but I rather understood that the whole matter had been gone very carefully into on the Private Bill Committee.

§ The Deputy-Chairman of Ways and Means (Captain Bourne)
I was Chairman of the Committee before which this Bill came. The Great Western Railway made out a perfectly good case for the line to which the Noble Lord has referred, but it did not have any reference to any question connected with aerodromes. The Committee were satisfied on the case that the railway made out that this new line should be sanctioned. The main purpose of this Bill is to provide for a deviation of the main line from Newton Abbot to Exeter. It may be remembered that last year the Great Western Railway promoted a Bill to alter their main line in South Devon which was liable to be interrupted during the south-westerly gales by the breakdown of the sea defences. After they made their plans a gale broke down the sea defences at the mouth of the Exe some miles further east of the original plan. After that experience they came to the conclusion that it would be better to take the line further inland, and the main purpose of this Bill is to abandon part of the original plan and to make a substituted line for it. Anybody who has travelled in that part of the world will realise that this is a very desirable alteration, and I suggest to the House that in the absence of any very strong ground it would be very unfair to the railway company, and undesirable in the public interest, not to give the Third Reading to this Bill.