MARK LAZAROWICZ MP CALLS FOR FASTER, MORE FREQUENT TRAINS BETWEEN SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND, AND A NEW LOOK AT NORTH-SOUTH HIGH SPEED RAIL LINKS, IN PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE TODAY

Mark Lazarowicz MP, Labour Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North & Leith, today called on the Government to look into ways of developing a new high speed rail link between England and Scotland.

Mark led the House of Commons debate this morning on the future of inter-city rail services and raised a number of issues relating to the East Coast Main Line (ECML) and Cross Country franchises, calling for investment in a long-term strategic approach to inter-city rail travel across the UK.

Mark called for the government to seek the following improvements in the renegotiated East Coast franchise:

• Faster journey times between Edinburgh and London, with the return of some 4 hour services between Edinburgh and London;
• A train between Edinburgh and London every half-hour during the day;
• Strengthening the overhead electrification network, to stop delays caused by problems with the overhead wires; and a commitment to  in-fill electrification for key gaps in the network, such as Leeds-York;
• Clearer, simpler, and cheaper fares:

Mark also emphasised the importance of the Cross Country franchise, (currently also under negotiation) not only to Edinburgh (where 10% of all rail journeys are on Cross Country services) but also to much of England as well as central Scotland. Mark called for the following:

• A minimum of one train an hour between Edinburgh and south of Birmingham.
• Maintaining service levels following the transfer of Scotland-Birmingham services on the West Coast Main Line to the West Coast franchise. Journey time improvements will be needed to compensate for loss of extended journeys south of Birmingham.
• Service levels to be maintained following the transfer of Scotland-Manchester trains to Trans Pennine Express (TPE) – TPE currently have no depot or crew facility in Scotland; neither does it currently have tilting trains which could most effectively use the tilt enabled infrastructure. Train journeys could be even longer than at present.
• Access to low fares. Currently Cross Country passengers have access to low fares across the franchise, equivalent access must be built into future franchise.

Looking to the medium and long-term, Mark called for a commitment from Government to investigate the possibility of new high speed rail routes across the UK, to provide the extra capacity needed on the rail network for both passenger travel and freight transport.

Faster services to key inter-city routes, where trains took passengers from, for example, London-Edinburgh in 3 ½ hours or from London-Newcastle in under 2 ½ hours, would, Mark argued, provide attractive competition to air travel. "Mark added that the environmental benefits from a switch from air to rail would be obvious but that significant economic and business advantages were also available from such a switch.

Mark also pointed to the West Coast Main Line as a good example of the benefits of the Union,

“It is difficult to believe that a Government whose responsibilities ran only as far as Carlisle would place a priority on providing rail improvements up to the Scottish border. 2007, as the year of the 300th anniversary of the Union, provided a great opportunity for the Government to look to make a commitment to a new ‘Union railway’ to underpin the economic, cultural and transport links between Scotland and England."

13th March 2007 Back to Press Releases