Crossrail Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, for his amendment. He confessed that he accepts that there will be disruption, which is a realistic starting point. I suspect that it will not come as a surprise to him that I do not think his way of attempting to deal with it is necessarily the right one. I shall explain in part the purpose of Clause 37. The clause is designed to ensure that the closure provisions of the Railways Act 2005—Part 4 on ““Network Modifications etc.””—do not apply when such a closure is required in connection with the construction or maintenance of the Crossrail works, or as a consequence of Crossrail passenger services. The 2005 Act provisions include the circumstances and procedures that apply for proposals to close—that is, permanently discontinue—certain railway services, networks or stations. To deliver the Crossrail project, it will be essential to alter track and stations and reorganise suburban services; Members of the Committee have accepted that. Some of these have the potential to be classed as ““closures””, even quite small changes; for example, the closure of the bay platform at Ilford station in order to permit platform lengthening could be covered. While such small changes may fall under the definition of ““minor modifications”” in the Railways Act—so the closure provisions do not apply anyway—others may not; for example, the replacement of the Docklands Light Railway station at Pudding Mill Lane on a new alignment. The hybrid Bill process has been the appropriate forum for considering the likely impacts of the project in context, including closures. If Parliament approves Crossrail, it is not appropriate for essential elements of that project to be subject to another consideration and approval process that could place the ability to being the project to fruition at risk. However, the noble Lord's amendment is intended primarily to refer to the temporary track possessions required by Network Rail in order to carry out the Crossrail works on the existing national railway network. That is not the purpose of the clause, and the amendment would simply require the Secretary of State to give six months’ notice of any closure relating to Crossrail, as closures under this clause relate to a discontinuance under the Railways Act 2005—which will, by definition, last for longer than four days. This notice period is redundant; such closures are likely to be small changes that will be carried out within the context of the Crossrail works as a whole. Taking the spirit of the amendment, I can again reassure the noble Lord that the Crossrail works on the network will be carried out by Network Rail, and so will be carefully planned and managed by Network Rail through the normal industry processes. Therefore, all train operators will be given notice of planned possessions and disruptions, enabling them to keep their customers informed and to put in place temporary alterations to their services. The majority of the works will be carried out at weekends and during overnight blockades, and Network Rail would also look to integrate the works with other infrastructure renewals and maintenance on the route, as it would with any other network works. Some temporary impact on passenger and freight operators from Crossrail infrastructure enhancements and network modernisation work is unavoidable given the scale of investment that Crossrail will bring to the existing network, but this disruption should be considered in the context of the public benefits that the project will bring overall. On the noble Lord’s area of interest, the works planned on the Great Eastern main line are much less extensive than on the Great Western main line, partly because it is already electrified. It will involve elements such as platform lengthening, some track work and new sidings and, importantly, station works and enhancements at Shenfield; I am sure that Essex County Council will be pleased about that. I hope that, having heard my explanation, the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.