RAILWAY SERVICE, INVERNESS-WICK (Hansard, 17 June 1959)

§ Mr. John MacLeod (Ross and Cromarty)
The reason I am raising the question of the proposed cuts in the Inverness-Wick rail service is that I am anxious to hear what alternative service is proposed, should the cuts take place, and whether the Minister is fully cognisant of the situation as it is at present in this area. I also want to ask whether he is satisfied that an alternative service will be an improvement on the existing service and whether he knows when the cuts will take place, if they do occur.
I want to make it clear that I fully understand that at present the proposed cuts have been forwarded in a letter, of which I have a copy, from the chief commercial manager in Scotland of the Transport Users' Consultative Committee for Scotland asking it—the letter may be described as a "feeler"—to consider the proposals and report its views. No doubt this will take a little time, but I am afraid that, with the Summer Recess corning along, decisions may be made then, and I am anxious to raise the matter in Parliament before any decisions are taken, and to give the views of my constituents, who will be greatly affected by the proposed cuts. I want also to comment on what I regard as the rather negative approach by the British Transport Commission. I have already written to the Chairman of the Commission giving my views and the views expressed by my constituents, and I have also written to the Secretary of State for Scotland.
I fully realise that reorganisation of the railway services in this region is vitally necessary, that expenditure is far in excess of the revenue obtained from the services north of Inverness, and that cuts will probably have to be made in respect of small stations, but I submit that there are passenger services in the proposals which should not be cut.
I want to emphasise that the public must have adequate transport services. 610 Surely the Minister will agree that that is a first essential of the development of any area. But are these proposals to cut down the services the only plans the Commission has for the railways in the Highlands? These proposed cuts, which affect my constituency, are taking place in a Development Area. I appreciate that the Government are trying to attract industry and development into this area, but I submit that the absence of a passenger rail service will actively discourage both industry and population from moving into the area.
I recently had a representative meeting in Alness, in my constituency. Very strong protests were made about the proposed cuts. The representatives at the meeting tried to be as fair as possible, and they appreciated that minor stations would have to be closed, but great exception was taken to the closing of passenger services to Alness. It has a population of 1,500, and it serves a large agricultural community. This may not sound very large to people in the South, but it is quite considerable in the Highlands today.
At the meeting charges were made against the Commission that the public would he forced on to a bus service which is at present totally inadequate to meet the needs of the area. If this takes place, we shall overcrowd roads which are also totally inadequate to meet the services, particularly in the summer months. The argument put forward in the letter from the Commission is that the road runs parallel with the railway for a great distance. But the Minister of Transport has now handed over that road—and what a road!—to the Secretary of State for Scotland. I admit that improvements are being made on it, but it is a winding and twisting road.
In its letter the Commission states that there is an hourly bus service. At the Alness meeting I was assured that that is quite untrue, even in the summer months. Anyone who has travelled north of Inverness by train and bus will realise that buses cannot replace the services provided by railways. It may be argued that buses provide some services which the railways cannot provide, in stopping at places and houses along the way. Trains cannot do that, and people have to walk to the stations. But 611 the speed of the buses in this area, due to the bad roads, is about half that of the trains, and the bus journey from Inverness to Alness—a distance of only about 30 miles—takes almost two hours.
What is to happen in the winter months, when the roads are frequently dangerous, ice-covered and sometimes impassable? It was the confirmed opinion of the meeting which I have mentioned that even were the bus service to be radically improved and reorganised, it would still be unable to cope with the luggage-laden passengers who patronise the railways. This is true. It is intolerable that passengers, from the South to Inverness, for instance, should be asked to get off the train and transfer everything to the bus stop, which is quite a distance from the railway station. It was also pointed out to me that the discomforts of the present bus service are very great. Some of the buses are the same as those in London, without doors and completely unheated. As one person said, a bus journey in the wintertime is not only uncomfortable, it is a feat of endurance.
I have received a letter from one of my constituents from which I should like to quote. It states: I am glad you are making a fuss about taking off the trains to the North. A good experience for Sir Brian Robertson would be to arrive at Inverness after a long journey from the South, plus family and a pram and luggage, and have to hump everything and everyone down to the bus service, a long way from the station, probably to find, as people do at the present time, that the bus was full, or the bus conductress calling out, 'Upstairs only'. Better still if it were pouring with rain and possibly the bus to the North had just left. It might give him a new light on no train service. A great many of his colleagues should be subjected to the same experience. They don't need to come up here in Rolls-Royce cars. I do not know about that, but I certainly have a great deal of sympathy with that point of view.
I think it most important that we should get clear what alternative service is to be provided in this area. Certainly, modern coaches would have to be provided complete with luggage accommodation at the rear. The expense would be great, because a number of such coaches would have to be provided if we were to maintain anything like an adequate service.
612 There is the question of late arriving, and great exception was taken to the proposal to withdraw the late train from Inverness. It would mean that passengers travelling up in the winter-time and arriving at Alness as late as midnight and proposing to go further North would arrive there much later, if they arrived at all.
I wish to re-emphasise that we in the Highlands are trying to develop and make progress in the area and that this move is detrimental. The Commission has not tried and is not trying to attract people to use the service. In its letter it points out that it is taking this action because the railway service is not being patronised, but I maintain that the Commission is not trying to attract people to the railway. Some attempt should be made to use a diesel car or a battery rail car, as with the transport between Inverness and Tain.
No doubt one of the reasons for closing these intermediate stations is the development going on in Wick and Thurso, particularly in Thurso, in connection with Dounreay, so they have tried to compete to get passengers up to the North quickly. I appreciate that, but I still say this is a negative approach. After all, we have a thriving tourist industry in the Highlands today. It would certainly discourage tourists travelling north of Inverness if they had to transport all their paraphernalia from the station to a bus service. Surely an attractive observation car could be put on this line with somebody in it giving information to tourists about the history of the country through which they are travelling. That would show some imagination in running the service and attract people to the line.
A battery rail car should be provided, before deciding to take this drastic step, in an attempt to attract people to the line. I understand that the battery rail car recently introduced to Deeside has been a great success and that from the spring of last year to 7th September there was a 90 per cent. increase in passenger traffic compared with the previous year. Can my hon. Friend tell me, or make inquiries, whether an approach has been made to the Hydro-Electric Board by the British Transport Commission to see whether such a service could be provided? This example must be an encouragement to the 613 Commission to put on such a service in other areas, particularly at intersections, at least in the first instance between Inverness and Wick.
In conclusion, I emphasise that it is quite intolerable that the Commission should have no forward-looking plans whatever for the rail services in the Highland area. Is this just the thin end of the wedge? After these cuts, what other cuts are likely to take place? I repeat that this is a retrograde step in an area which is scheduled as a Development Area.

§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation (Mr. Richard Nugent)
I am sorry to hear of the difficulties being experienced by the constituents of my hon. Friend the Member for Ross and Cromarty (Mr. John MacLeod), but I must explain that I am not responsible for the management of the railways, nor for the proposal by the British Transport Commission to make modifications on these lines. It is one of the quirks of the situation that Adjournment debates are raised on this subject over which, practically speaking, I have no control.
The Scottish Region of the Commission has made a proposal to streamline the rail services on this line and I have received a copy of the letter to which my hon. Friend referred. The Commission intends to do it by closing down certain branch lines and withdrawing services from certain stations and halts on the main line. This is the relevant point. I understand that this proposal is to be considered by the Scottish Transport Users' Consultative Committee on 17th July. Details of the proposal have been circulated to all local authorities and other interests concerned to give them an opportunity of making objections or representations to the Committee if they wish to do so.
I should like to say a word to my hon. Friend about the situation and the functioning of the Transport Users' Consultative Committee in Scotland. The Committee is a statutory one set up by the 1947 Transport Act to safeguard users' interests. The members of it are appointed by my right hon. Friend, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, after consultation with representative 614 bodies concerned, covering such interests as industry, agriculture, labour, shipping, and so on. The chairman and two additional independent members are also appointed by the Minister, and this Committee considers all aspects of any proposal for closure of a line and hears representations and objections which local people or other interests wish to make.
When the Committee has reached a conclusion, it sends it direct to the Minister, with a copy to the Transport Commission. Records show that in every case the Commission has accepted the Committee's views, although the Minister can give a final direction; but that power has never been used.
In these circumstances, my hon. Friend will understand that it would he unconstitutional and improper for me to consider the merits of this proposal at a time just before the Consultative Committee is to hear objections. The Committee will hear, as it always does, the merits of this case and will advise us accordingly; and this hearing would be prejudiced. In any case, it is primarily a management matter for the Transport Commission.
If I could say something of the general policy, I can tell my hon. Friend that the Minister and I are responsible in the final reckoning; and here it is our policy to encourage the Transport Commission, which has a responsibility to Parliament to make its finances solid, that it should in fact do so. The deficit for last year is estimated to be of a size which causes anxiety—something in the region of £90 million; and in these circumstances it is quite evident that the estimated saving from this proposal, which is of the order of £40,000 or £50,000 a year, is one which it is right for the Commission to try to make. The issue which the Transport Users' Consultative Committee will have to consider is whether this saving can be made consistent with fully serving the needs of the travelling public in this area. It will set about this difficult task in a conscientious way and will deal with the matter expeditiously, taking into account, among all other things, the many points which my hon. Friend has raised this evening.
I should like to make just one comment on his criticism of the Commission's 615 policy as being negative—that the Commission is not trying to attract passengers. I would remind my hon. Friend that the Commission is at present engaged on the major work of modernisation of our railway system in order to catch up on the arrears of, not only decades, but almost of generations.
It is only right in developing these services that it should use its own judgment as to what it believes is economically possible; and what development has a reasonable chance of paying its way in the circumstances of financial difficulty in which the Commission now finds itself. That, I think, it is doing. In some areas, it has provided new services; but in others it has not, because the Commission thinks that there is no potential.

§ Mr. John MacLeod
The hon. Gentleman has made my point. I was not criticising the Commission on the ground that it was not trying to give services; 616 I was trying to make the point that, in the Highlands, it appeared to have a negative approach.

§ Mr. Nugent
I think that I have made the point which I wished to make, and which I thought it fair to the Commission to make. The Commission's policy is the reverse of negative, but the application of it must be a matter for the Commissions' judgment. I am certain that this machinery which has been laid down by Parliament will work satisfactorily, that the various important points which my hon. Friend has made will be properly considered, and that the Consultative Committee will make a reliable and sound recommendation to my right hon. Friend and the Commission to enable them to reach the best solution.