§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. David Davis.]
§ 8 am
§ Mr. David Amess (Basildon)I am conscious of my good fortune in being able to raise on the Adjournment motion a matter of great importance to my constituents—transport to and from Basildon. I recognise the keenness of my hon. Friend the Minister for Shipping and Public Transport to be here to respond for the Government to the points that I raise on behalf of my constituents.
I am grateful for the opportunity to comment briefly on the Department of Transport because for 18 months I was involved in the workings of that Department as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State with responsibility for public transport and other matters. During that time, I served with a number of Ministers who acquitted themselves in their offices with great distinction. In particular, I recognise the invaluable work done by my right hon. Friends the Ministers for Southend, West (Mr. Channon) and for Hertsmere (Mr. Parkinson), both of whom, in their different styles, led the Department extremely well. In time to come, the general public will benefit immeasurably from their great efforts and courageous decisions as Secretaries of State for Transport. I pay tribute to the Minister for Local Government and Inner Cities who, as Minister with responsibility for public transport, tapped many an untried source to get more money into the Department in terms of public finance. I also remember warmly the efforts of my hon. Friend the Member for Eltham (Mr. Bottomley), who left his mark in terms of road safety. I shall refer later to a great contribution that he made in my constituency. Towards the end of my time at the Department, my hon. Friend the present Minister for Sport conducted a meeting with the leader of the Conservative group in the highways department of Essex county council who, I know, listened carefully to the points that we raised about the allocation that Essex was to get.
Drawing on my time in the Department, I cannot think of any sector of Government policy where our economic successes have bitten more deeply than in transport. It is clear that many more people than ever before now use cars, British Rail, London Underground, buses and taxis, and fly. That is a direct result of the success of the Government's economic policies. At the same time, the increased use of transport created many problems for Transport Ministers. I can think of no sphere in which there is a more parochial insight into Government operations than that of transport.
Hon. Members were keen to have more trains, so long as the new lines did not run through their constituencies. They were keen on road improvements, so long as the road works did not disrupt the traffic in their constituencies. They were keen to enjoy more flights, so long as the extension of runways did not increase noise over their areas. I make no apology for being guilty of the same sin of parochialism today.
No town has seen more changes in transport than Basildon. It was mentioned in the Doomsday book, so although it is the oldest and largest new town in the country, it goes back a long way. At the turn of the century it consisted only of quiet roads and lanes. The pioneers who built the town after the second world war built most 511 of the roads barely wide enough to take one car. Now we live in an age when young people no longer save up to acquire their first banger at the age of 17. They automatically have cars, and many families own two or three. That has added to congestion on the roads of Basildon.
My hon. Friend the Minister can relax. I do not intend to subject British Rail to a harangue today. I am pleased to report from the sources that I consulted before this debate that, since the timetable changes in May this year, there have been real improvements in the quality of service on the Fenchurch Street line. Ministers with responsibility for British Rail have willingly and sadly acknowledged that the Fenchurch Street line compares unfavourably with all other heavily used commuter lines.
I have, however, a few complaints to record this morning. My hon. Friend the Member for Southend, East (Mr. Taylor) has for many years brought to the attention of the House the difficulties that commuters in his constituency have experienced, but Basildon has suffered even more.
I want first to praise the services at the three stations in Basildon—Pitsea, Laindon and Basildon itself. The staff do a wonderful job in difficult circumstances and have coped very well with the changes instigated by British Rail since May. Pitsea station has a village atmosphere. The staff are popular with the commuters and usually win the annual garden contest conducted by British Rail. It is important to recognise such small points. The staff remain courteous in the face of irate commuters.
We have an excellent commuter group in Basidon. It held a public meeting last year when the manager of Network SouthEast addressed an often hostile audience and dealt fairly with questions. I am delighted to tell the House that the chairman of the commuter group says that the present timetable is the best that we have ever had, although obvious revisions are necessary. We need three, not the present two, trains during the daytime for Laindon and Pitsea. That is not an awful lot to ask. Network SouthEast obtains more revenue from Basildon, Pitsea and Laindon than it obtains from stations on any other part of the line. The chairman of my commuter group thinks that British Rail should show more imagination by raising money through exploiting the assets of the system. That could be done by advertising on trains, sponsorship, letting, or general new ideas. I was shown around the three stations by the new public relations man and told about the expansion of car parking space at Pitsea railway station. We need more details about that. If my hon. Friend the Minister cannot provide them now, perhaps the Minister of State will provide them in writing.
I was told that in this new atmosphere of enterprise there would be more commercial opportunities to improve the facilities at our three stations. So far, there has been no evidence of that. I agree with my ever-expanding commuter group that there are opportunties to improve the facilities at our three stations. I hope that better quality toilets and waiting facilities can be provided. We should not give in to vandalism, and my constituents have every right to enjoy the most comfortable service that can be provided.
The Basildon commuter group has criticised staffing levels and maintains that the higher the staffing levels the more people are reassured. Many commuters write to me complaining about the frequency of points freezing on the Fenchurch Street line. That means that trains are cancelled 512 and the commuter's excuse to his boss that he has missed the train begins to wear a little thin. The Minister may say that if people got up earlier they could overcome such problems, but extra effort should be expended on that line.
Fenchurch Street has a magnificent revamped station, thanks to the Government's investment in the line, and when new signalling and new carriages come on stream, the system will be further improved. Perhaps the Minister will tell us about any further improvements envisaged for that line. I and my colleagues in Essex applauded the introduction of the penalty fares scheme on the Fenchurch Street line. It will benefit my constituents if we can recoup the money that is lost because of fare dodging.
I recently heard from some constituents, who are clearly not fare dodgers but who seem to have been penalised unfairly. One of them told me in a letter that when his annual season ticket was left at home he was asked to pay a £10 penalty fare. He had understood from an announcement by the Department that anyone with a valid excuse would not be expected to pay the penalty fare. The Department's spokesman also said that British Rail was not after honest people but was out to catch fare dodgers. With that in mind, my constituent refused to pay the £10 penalty but said that he was willing to pay for a return fare which could be reclaimed at a later date.
The ticket inspector maintained that my constituent had travelled without a ticket and was therefore liable for the penalty. After much argument, and on being told that he was making a fuss over nothing because he could later reclaim the money, my constituent agreed to pay the £10 fine. He was given an envelope and supplied with the address to which to send his complaint. Having been given this assurance, my constituent then agreed to pay the rail fare.
However, it then occurred to my constituent that he needed a ticket to get home, and the inspector saw fit to tell him this only after he had gone back to check the matter. My constituent phoned British Rail's customer relations department. He was amazed to learn not only that what had happened was correct but that forgetting a ticket was not a valid excuse. Therefore, he would not be able to get a refund on the £10 penalty. Had my constituent realised that he had forgotten the ticket before he travelled, he could have bought a ticket at the station and claimed it back later.
I do not want to bore the House on this subject, but it is nonsense for British Rail to behave in this way. I am sure that the aim of the penalty fare scheme is to attack fare dodgers. It was not meant to penalise honest people, such as my constituent. Goodness knows, we are all capable of loss of memory. Sometimes, I can hardly remember the names of my children, so the fact that my constituent forgot his season ticket once in four years of commuting on the Fenchurch Street line hardly makes it fair that he should have to pay not only the £10 penalty but the extra fare. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will look at that problem.
With regard to roads, I must begin by praising the chairman of the highways committee on the council, Mr Ron Williams, who came with me to the meeting with my hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble (Mr. Atkins) that I mentioned earlier, asking for extra resources for roads in Essex. He came to the House a few weeks ago and met all hon. Members representing Essex constituencies a t a fruitful meeting. We brought concerns to his attention, and in a short time he has already acted on them.
513 I have another question for the Minister. Again, if he does not have the details, perhaps he or his colleague will write to me about the A127. When I reported a tragic accident, in which a young child ran out of school across the A127 and was killed, my hon. Friend the Member for Eltham ordered the installation of crash barriers all the way along the A127. I am sure that that has saved many lives, but we also now need barriers on the A13, particularly near the Blue House farm. This is a dangerous area, and my constituents would be grateful if we could have crash barriers there.
We have the largest shopping centre in Europe, and the Round Acre roundabout has been completed. That has made shopping in Basildon this Christmas a delight. No one should be put off travelling to Basildon to get his Christmas goodies. The Round Acre roundabout works have been completed, and traffic flows are excellent. However, I should be interested to hear from my hon. Friend any details about the Fortune of War roundabout. There is some confusion about what is happening about the flyover there, and some delay in the opening of the roundabout.
It is no small thing to ask my hon. Friend the Minster whether we could have slightly better road signing. A few years ago, my right hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Mrs. Chalker) was kind enough to improve the road signing of the M25/Al27. We should have the "Nuclear free zone" signs taken down, and instead Basildon should have one or two nice signs saying, "Welcome to Basildon". Furthermore, there is no driving test centre at Basildon. My constituents have to travel to Hornchurch or Southend. When I have raised the matter before with the Department of Transport, it has been said that road conditions are not difficult enough in Basildon to warrant the provision of a centre. I think that that is clap-trap. There are all sorts of road conditions in Basildon and it is about time that we had our own test centre.
As for buses, the Eastern National Bus Company is doing an excellent job. The market has been freed and my constituents are enjoying facilities that are bettered by none. The company ran a bus route which passed along Halstow way when there was no great demand from my constituents, and I am concerned that it seems to be doing that again with a route which includes Emmanuel road and Vowler road. Perhaps my hon. Friend the Minister will take that on board.
The taxi and private car-hire owners in Basildon do an excellent job. I have the privilege to be the president of the Basildon taxi and licensed private hire fund for children, which in only four years has raised £20,000. It organises charity runs to Clacton and it has organised a Christmas show each year. It is taking socialist-controlled Basildon district council to the High Court because there are only 83 licensed hackney carriage owners and 300 licensed private hire cars. The fund does not believe that the council has issued enough hackney carriage licences.
I have referred briefly to some transport difficulties in Basildon. I can say with confidence that Basildon is the finest new town in the country and the finest town in the south-east. It has excellent communications. There is an airport and an excellent road infrastructure thanks to the Commission for the New Towns and the Government's excellent policies. Basildon welcomes the single market in 514 1992. Basildon means business. Basildon will welcome any business people. They certainly should not be put off coming to the town through any traffic delays.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Patrick McLoughlin)I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon (Mr. Amess) on securing the debate on the Adjournment. He rightly referred to his long period of work in the Department of Transport. During that time he was not able to raise transport matters on the Floor of the House, but he used forums other than the House to raise them with assiduity and vigour. I am sure that his constituents know that. Indeed, he opened this debate at an early hour this morning and talked about the opportunities that come with certain infrastructures and Government investment. I shall try to deal with all the matters that he raised. If a shortage of time precludes me from taking up some of them, I shall write to my hon. Friend in due course about specific problems.
I realise that for Basildon and the rest of south Essex the Fenchurch Street line is an important link. Many commuters depend on it to get into and out of London in the morning and evening. For some time, the service on the line has not been as good as British Rail, the Government and the passengers on the line would like it to be. I was pleased, however, to hear about the improvements of recent months to which my hon. Friend referred.
Our joint commitment to achieving a modern, efficient service throughout the network is not in doubt. Over the past few years, there has been a prolific increase in the number of commuters using the railways. Since 1983, the number of peak-time arrivals in London has increased by 23 per cent. so that now almost half a million people arrive in London by train every weekday. The amount of money being invested in Network Southeast has also risen dramatically. Over the next three years, NSE will be spending £1.3 billion on new rolling stock and associated infrastructure improvements such as electrification and resignalling. This should bring about a significant improvement in the standard of rail services in the south-east.
As far as the Fenchurch Street line is concerned, peak punctuality and reliability is improving this year but is not yet at a satisfactory standard. On a more positive note, however, it is pleasing that, last year, the level of overcrowding fell considerably compared with 1988.
The existing resources that Network SouthEast has to operate the service on the Fenchurch Street line are out of date. The trains are some of the oldest on the network and it is also time for the signalling to be renovated. I can assure my hon. Friend that both British Rail and the Government are keen to see the complete upgrading of the line. At present NSE is working up plans completely to replace the rolling stock fleet and to resignal the entire route. Those new trains will be a version of the new generation networker trains which will be coming into service from the end of next year on lines through south London and north Kent to relieve overcrowding and improve service quality. In the short term, more modern stock is coming to the Fenchurch Street line from the West Anglia and Great Eastern lines to replace the unreliable rolling stock currently used for off-peak services.
515 The news is not all bad on the Fenchurch Street line. One notable event this year was the community policing experiment. That provided additional British Transport police to give a high profile train and station presence. The results are extremely encouraging. Crime of all sorts has been reduced and travellers' perceptions of personal safety have been improved. NSE is now evaluating the experiment in more detail and considering how it might be extended to other parts of the network.
My hon. Friend has already mentioned penalty fares, which were authorised by Parliament last year. A pilot scheme came into operation on the Fenchurch Street line at the end of October. The line was chosen because it was considered to be best equipped to safeguard the honest customer with staffed booking offices and ticket machines at every station. The scheme has been very successful at catching and deterring fare dodgers. NSE tells me that it has been flexible in dealing with passengers who have left their season tickets at home. However, I am disturbed to hear of the case mentioned by my hon. Friend. The first time it happens—and for a limited period—NSE's penalty fares office has decided to waive the penalty. If the pilot scheme continues to be successful, it will be extended to other parts of the network in order to recoup the estimated £35 million that it loses each year from dishonest travellers. That £35 million is the equivalent of 18 new trains. My hon. Friend fairly said that people who dodge fares dodge others out of a better service. As I said, I am disturbed to hear about the case that he raised, and I shall investigate it.
My hon. Friend is no doubt aware that the specific road matters that he raised are for the local highway authority, Essex county council or the Commission for the New Towns, which he should approach for details of plans or timings for any works.
The flyover scheme close to the Fortune of War roundabout was promoted by Basildon new town, now the Commission for the New Towns. Once the commision has completed the connections to the local highway network at either end, the Department will publish the necessary orders to eliminate the roundabout. The Five Bells roundabout is part of an Essex county council scheme that 516 has been accepted by the Dept for transport supplementary grant for 1991–92. Work at Roundacre in Basildon was promoted by the Commission for the New Towns. The Department has no details about it, but understands that the work, comprising roundabout improvement, is now largely complete, and that, I am sure, is welcome.
My hon. Friend raised the issue of road signalling, and especially his wish for "Welcome to Basildon" signs to be erected. I can certainly understand his wish if all that there is at the moment is a sign saying that Basildon is a nuclear-free zone—whatever that means. My hon. Friend no doubt wants a more positive approach to Basildon. He is noted for his positive approach to the town that he represents, which contrasts with the whingeing that we hear from local authorities when they run down their towns. My hon. Friend has been positive about the benefits of his constituency. When anyone mentions his name in the House, instantly the thought of Basildon leaps to mind. I assure him that should proposals for the signs that he wants be put forward the Department will certainly give sympathetic consideration to them. I am glad that the local highway authority is not under the control of those who run the local district council.
I hope that, from what I have said this morning, my hon. Friend will accept that we have recognised some of the problems that he described and that the Department and British Rail are trying to bring about the necessary improvements.
On my hon. Friend's point about crash barriers on the A127, I hope that he will understand that I want to study that proposal, and the experience that he described, in more detail. If he thinks that crash barriers at other sites would be of considerable benefit, I shall also carefully consider that proposal. I shall write to my hon. Friend with full details once we have studied the matter.
I would rather not comment on the question of taxis and hackney carriages. I am sure that my hon. Friend understands that, because there is a case outstanding in the courts which would be best settled by the courts, it would be wrong of me to comment.
Question put and agreed to.
Adjourned accordingly at half-past Eight o'clock.