Crossrail Bill

I should like to go back to the amendments in the name of my noble friend. He talked about the amendment allowing the public sector to take over the franchises of lines on which Crossrail trains would run. That, to me, means that the Government would take over the operating of all services on the Great Eastern Railway and First Great Western lines. If one were suspicious and had a conspiratorial mind—which of course I do not—one might think that, as the Government had failed to achieve their objective of getting priority for the construction of Crossrail in the other clauses in the Bill, another way to do it is to take over running the franchises and reduce the services so that there is more time to close the lines and have fewer trains. It is much easier to do that if you own the franchise and run it than if it has been let to First Group or National Express. I am sure that would not be the case, but it is 10 years out, and something might go wrong with the construction or something else. It is a good idea to have flexibility in the operation of those passenger services, because there will certainly be some disruption. I hope that my noble friend will give me some assurance that this will not be used to reduce services, to the detriment of people living anywhere between Swansea, Cardiff, Plymouth, Ipswich and Norwich, during a very long construction period—in other words, that it is just a way of managing a franchising process, rather than cutting the services to a degree that will make everyone move back to their cars again.