Speeches by Alexander.

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his responsible remarks, and I thank him for raising the response of the emergency services, as well as the response of the railway staff who ensured that swift action could be taken once the collision had happened. It is worth saying once again how quickly, bravely and professionally our…”

“I spoke yesterday to the managing director of East Midlands Railway, Will Rogers, and the Chair of the Transport Committee is completely right to say that support must also be provided to the staff who were caught up in this incident. One of the things that Will Rogers explained to me is that he is receiving support fr…”

“We are obviously keen to ensure that normal service patterns can be resumed as soon as possible, but there is extensive work still to be done at the site. We need to ensure that everything is in perfect working order before we resume services. I will keep my hon. Friend updated, as I will do other hon. Members, as soon…”

“I give my hon. Friend the reassurance that the line will not be reopened until it is absolutely safe to do so. There are detailed procedures to be gone through in order to ensure that the railway is safe to resume services. We need to remove the trains from the track, as I set out, and repair the damage that will have …”

“As I alluded to in my earlier remarks, it is a complicated process to finalise the investigations on site and remove the trains from the track. Some will have to be hoisted off the track by a crane, and we will need to move overhead-line equipment to do that, which will then need to be repaired. The track will also nee…”

“As someone who also represents a railway town—Swindon—I understand my hon. Friend’s experiences in Long Eaton of being stopped in the street by members of the railway family. This will be a particularly challenging time for them, and I do understand that. I assure him that the RAIB, which was on the scene quickly, will…”

“I can assure my hon. Friend that the railway will act as one in these challenging weeks. We have made tickets available to be used on other operators, and we will, as always, keep in close contact with the train operating companies to ensure that there is collaborative working and that we keep the disruption and inconv…”

“I can assure my hon. Friend of that. This weekend, I spoke to Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi of the BTP, and to the managing director of EMR. This morning, I was briefed by the safety director of Network Rail. We will ensure that the investigation that RAIB and BTP do independently is appropriately resourced. I will look …”

“I give Arthur my best wishes, and I am pleased to hear that, while he sustained injuries, he is hopefully on the road to recovery. Let me reassure my hon. Friend that the RAIB and the British Transport police, who are involved in investigations, will be appropriately resourced and equipped to do their work thoroughly. …”

“The hon. Gentleman and I were in direct contact on Friday evening, and I thank him for his recognition of the railway staff, including those from Thameslink, who provided assistance on the evening. I can give him a guarantee that as soon as the RAIB makes recommendations to the Government, we will act swiftly if there …”

“We are going to maintain regional branding within GBR. It will be GBR Great Western or GBR Midlands, maybe. It may be GBR Anglia as opposed to GBR. We are not going to have GBR C2C in Greater Anglia. We will make pragmatic decisions so that it is clear to customers. The one bit of the jigsaw we still need to work throu…”

“Yes. National Highways is responsible for the strategic road network. It is really important that what it is doing integrates properly with other modes of travel, whether that is mass transit in particular areas or rail. In the third road investment strategy, we have also introduced a dedicated fund to enable progress …”

“Our position on this has been pretty clear and consistent. Airport expansions are privately financed. Any associated improvements to the road or rail network need to be met by the scheme promoter rather than the taxpayer. There is no money dedicated in this spending review to improving Heathrow's rail or road infrastru…”

“It was the right thing to do to extend the 5p cut for another three months to the end of this year, given what has happened to petrol and diesel prices following the crisis in the Middle East. When people are going to the petrol station to fill up, and the vast majority of cars that are on our roads at the moment—rough…”

“We need to see how it goes over the next couple of months and we need to be reassured that the planning for the summer period is rigorous, so that people travelling for their summer holidays are able to start that holiday as soon as possible. I would be happy to consider what more we could do with our European counterp…”

“We are in discussion with Network Rail, and we have shared some work and analysis on what might happen to supply and therefore cost in the future. About 70% of passenger trains rely on electricity for traction and not diesel, and I know that Network Rail has basically forward purchased the vast majority of that. There …”

“It is all too early to say, and I do not want to get into the world of conjecture on this. When you do business planning, you need to look at what revenue you are getting in. The fact that we have still seen good growth in passenger numbers is a positive thing. The consideration about the £3 bus fare cap was a very liv…”

“Thank you to you and the Committee for all the work you have done to support the many changes we are making to the transport system, particularly on the Railways Bill. Your recommendations were very helpful in that respect. We are making good progress on improving public transport, investing in our roads, and enabling …”

“Investing in the public transport network, which is what we are doing, is actually more likely to yield outcomes. If you take what the previous Government did on their cycling and walking investment strategy, for example, they had targets galore but did not hit them. The reason they did not hit them was that they took …”

“Officials within the Department have fortnightly meetings with airlines about this to make sure that we have the latest information about what their passengers are experiencing. Obviously, EES is an EU scheme and not a UK Government initiative, so we do not have direct control over it. In March, I met with my EU counte…”