Crossrail Bill

I wonder whether I might reply to this amendment and at the same time, with the leave of the Committee, deal also with Amendment No. 13, which relates to the same subject and could probably have been grouped with Amendments Nos. 9, 10 and 12. The Minister referred to franchising the services. I heard what he said about the fact that there might need to be an interim public sector operator, although I think that that would be immensely complicated to arrange. However, I will not comment on that further. I wanted to take the opportunity of deciding whether Transport for London is letting the franchise and how that affects the services that use the rest of the network. Transport for London now lets some franchises for London Overground and it makes a far better job of doing so than the Department for Transport, having put in place a sensible structure. Anyone who has used those overground services will know that they have improved immeasurably since Transport for London took them over. However, it begs the question of how services which may be franchised by Transport for London are to fit in with the rest of the network. Perhaps I may draw attention to a really serious problem—and I assure the Minister that I have taken the widest possible soundings from the most senior people in the industry. The franchise periods being set by the Department for Transport are ludicrously short if one of the objectives is to draw investment into the system. I instance the new South Central Trains franchise—I hasten to add that I have not discussed that with the managing director—which is for five and a half years. Bearing in mind that the franchising will operate assets that will last for 30 or 40 years, it beggars belief that the Government consider this to be an efficient system. The Welsh Assembly has agreed with Arriva Trains Wales a 15-year franchise, which is scarcely enough to get a payback but it would bring in its train modest improvements. Merseyrail, which has let its own franchise, is a 25-year franchise, and Chiltern Railways was originally let as a 25-year franchise. In all those cases, there has been substantial investment not only in hardware but in recruiting and training the most competent managers. With a very short franchise term, all the best people will be on the lookout to see where they can go to get away from the franchise reletting process, which is entirely process-driven in the department and does not reflect the interests of the staff, the management or, above all, the passengers. I hope that the Minister will have something further to say about this because I believe that it is a major problem in the industry.