Mr. Ted Fletcherasked the Minister of Transport if he will issue a general direction, in the public interest, to British Railways to run trains to isolated towns and villages, in those regions where rail services have been discontinued but where the tracks have been retained, during periods of heavy snow falls which make the roads impassable.
§ Mr. Tom FraserI have discussed with the Railways Board whether there is any help they could give. The Board are sympathetic but, because of the very great practical difficulties, they cannot hold out any hope of a general arrangement to use lines already closed to run emergency rail services in severe winter weather.
Where a line has been closed for some time there will probably be no staff available and there may also be difficulty in providing rolling stock at short notice. Moreover the safety of passengers could not always be guaranteed, particularly in snowy weather, if a service were operated over a line which had not been subject to normal maintenance and examination.