I speak in support of amendment 20, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse), which would create an independent body to ensure that scrutiny and transparency are at the heart of the public service train operating contracts the Government propose to award. With the end of competitive tendering of franchise contracts, which historically, despite their flaws, have contributed to some improvements to cost control and passenger growth, it will at least ensure that quality and accountability are present in the process, and will be important. I welcome the Government’s desire to improve our railways, but it is important that there is accountability and to remember that public ownership and direction have historically caused problems as well as improvements. Although the majority of current train operating contracts are in the private sector, since the pandemic they have been subject to even more significant direction and sometimes micromanagement by the Government than before.
My journey into London today shows how the public versus private debate is not all that is needed to improve our railway. At Didcot Parkway this morning, only one out of three ticket offices was working and two out of four ticket windows were closed. That led me to miss train number one as a result of private sector problems, and I was prevented from catching the next couple of trains as a result of public sector problems, namely Network Rail signalling problems. Again, the ideology is less important than the delivery.
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In Oxfordshire, there are many examples of actions with negative effects that have been taken with at least partial public sector approval or sign-off. They include the withdrawal of high-speed trains from Great Western Railway, leading to inter-city trains with fewer carriages elsewhere; CrossCountry’s current temporary timetable, leading to major service gaps through Oxford, particularly in the evening peak period, which I am pleased to say the Secretary of State has heavily criticised; and timetable cuts on Chiltern Railways since the pandemic, combined with rolling-stock reliability problems that contribute to overcrowding.
Ensuring that the best-quality public sector arrangements are in place will make it easier for the Government to focus on the investment that our railway needs, so that it can play its full part in the economic transformation that our country deserves. Examples of proposed beneficial projects in Oxfordshire include a new station at Grove, a new Oxford to Witney railway, the completion of East West Rail to Cambridge, Didcot to Oxford electrification,
passenger trains on Oxford’s Cowley branch, and—this was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller)—an effective solution for the impact on local traffic of the Bicester London Road level crossing.