Crossrail Bill

I am grateful to my noble friend. I think he said that the Government’s intention was to comply with what the Select Committee recommended in this case, but he is not quite there yet. Three issues need to be addressed, which are probably covered by my two amendments. First, there needs to be one timetabling organisation. We cannot have the central section being timetabled from the outside. That is pretty obvious, but we have to ask the question. Incidentally, my two amendments do not mention Network Rail, just one infrastructure manager. I do not see any change, but who knows? Secondly, who sets the charges? My noble friend did not talk about that. On the regulated railway, the regulator normally sets the charges that the infrastructure manager can make. It is a combination of how much the regulator thinks he needs to spend to maintain and operate the track and, in this case, a premium because it is a new project under Article 8.2 of the 2001/14 directive. When we debated the CTRL, we discovered that London and Continental had given Network Rail an 80-year contract to maintain the CTRL on a cost-plus basis. I am sure my noble friend cannot respond to me today on why it did that because it is historical, but I hope that will not happen on Crossrail. It would be much better if the amount of money that the infrastructure manager was given was fixed by the ORR because it is clear that the department has not done very well on the CTRL and perhaps the ORR would do better. Thirdly, there is access. Other noble Lords mentioned the possibility of other trains apart from the Crossrail metro going through the tunnel in future. Someone has to act as a sort of referee if there is demand for more access than is available. I accept that the amendments as they stand are probably not right, but I would be grateful if my noble friend could answer on timetabling, on whether the Government support the recommendation by the Select Committee and on charges and access.