§ 2.56 p.m.
§ Lord O'Neill of the MaineMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will make funds available to British Rail to enable them to bring their London to Bournemouth InterCity service up to the standard of other InterCity services in the country.
The Earl of CaithnessNo, my Lords. Although there is to be considerable investment in this London and South-East sector express service, there are no plans for it to be transferred to the InterCity sector.
§ Lord O'Neill of the MaineMy Lords, I thank the noble Earl for that reply. May I ask him whether he is aware that those of us who live on the Bournemouth line and have the opportunity of going north from London and, even more, west from London are astonished by the comfort of the carriages and the smoothness of the rails, whereas on this particular line, in order to achieve the laudable objective of Southampton in 110 minutes, we have to be rattled along on old rolling stock and on rails which are far from smooth?
The Earl of CaithnessMy Lords, the noble Lord will not have to wait much longer, because the Government have recently authorised the expenditure by BR of some £28 million for 24 new electric multiple units to be used on that line.
Viscount BuckmasterMy Lords, will the noble Earl the Minister agree that of the total distance of 108A miles from Waterloo to Bournemouth, about 61 miles are almost dead straight and therefore ideal for highspeed running? Does this not constitute a case for raising the speed limit on these fast stretches from 90 to 100 or even 125 mph, given the provision of adequate motive power and bearing in mind that many trains already exceed 95 mph on these stretches?
The Earl of CaithnessMy Lords, I am sure that the noble Viscount, Lord Buckmaster, is right about the mileages, but I should not like to comment on increasing the speed limit without further reference to BR on the safety aspect. However, I can tell the House that when the new locomotives are in place the journey to Weymouth will be reduced by 17 minutes.
§ Lord Maybray-KingMy Lords, is the noble Earl aware that, as one who has used this line regularly for over 50 years, I can confirm every syllable of every word said by my noble friend Lord O'Neill?
The Earl of CaithnessMy Lords, I hope that the noble Lord will soon have a more comfortable carriage to sit in and a faster and better service.
§ Lord Carmichael of KelvingroveMy Lords, while we are glad that there will be new locomotives on the line, and we hope that the noble Lord, Lord O'Neill, will get a smoother ride fairly soon, is the Minister aware that there is a growing feeling that reliability on both the express and InterCity lines all over the country is not very good? Has he any figures showing the punctuality of InterCity and express services over the last two or three years?
Does he not agree that a very large amount of investment will be required if we are to bring all the services up to the standard that the railways wish? Does he not further agree that the bids by the chairman of British Rail which the noble Earl said last week had been largely met by the Government are only one-third of those asked for by the previous chairman of British Rail? In other words, one chairman was asking for what was required and the other chairman is asking for what he thinks he can get.
The Earl of CaithnessMy Lords, I cannot comment on the punctuality of trains because that is rather wide of the Question on the Order Paper, but if the noble Lord wishes to put down a Question on that subject, I shall make the information available to him.
On the question of British Rail investment being too low, since 1983 British Rail have adopted a management structure based on business sectors. The investment proposals are what the sector managers believe they need to meet their objectives.