Speeches by Alexander.

“I don’t think the Department for Transport should be the operational manager of the railways, but Ministers should set the strategic direction for Great British Railways and hold that organisation ruthlessly to account. I have seen a number of times the analogy of the abolition of NHS England. The Government have not a…”

“In the consultation that we ran a couple of months ago we proposed a statutory role for devolved Governments and mayoral strategic authorities in helping to plan and develop the rail network. Established mayoral strategic authorities will have the right to request further rail devolution. GBR will need to balance local…”

“I do not have figures on that with me today. What we want to do is reduce the existing duplication. I hope there would be some cost savings associated with that. One of the discussions that I am having with officials at the moment is how we set up new systems in the most cost-effective way. If there is one system that …”

“It is something that we are working through at the moment. If you are running an organisation the size of Great British Railways, there will need to be a sensible management structure in place. We have now recruited some alliance directors for Southeastern and South Western, which is where you bring together the operat…”

“Correct, and that is why I said there is detail to be worked through and I am happy to come back to talk to you about it.”

“One hundred per cent. The public sector equality duty will apply to GBR. It does not currently apply to the train operating companies. We made it clear in the consultation document that accessibility will be at the heart of Great British Railways. I know that the rail Minister has responded to your letter, Chair, setti…”

“I have been very clear that there is a role for open access operators in the reformed railway. We should bear in mind that, in the overall number of journeys on the railways, open access operators account for less than 1%. The visit I made to Newton Aycliffe was to see the new trains that will be part of the Grand Cent…”

“I was about to come to that point. It is important that there is a single guiding mind about who is taking decisions about access to the network. I come back to the point I made previously that at the moment the taxpayer subsidises the day-to-day operation of the railways to the tune of £2 billion. We have to be mindfu…”

“We will make sure that those safeguards are in place. We need to go through the responses to the consultation and get the legislation finalised and before Parliament, so it is appropriate that when GBR is set up both open access operators and freight know that there is a fair process in place for them seeking access to…”

“What is really interesting is looking at things like the rail network enhancements programme in Network Rail which often looks at improving and building new stations, improving accessibility at stations and at the frequency of services at existing stations and in which areas they ultimately terminate. All of that can b…”

“The role of the Mayors in helping to plan and manage the railways will be important, because they will often be aware in their regions of the particular parts of the network where this is a critical issue. I think that in setting up Great British Railways—we used this phrase earlier—we need to go back to basics; we nee…”

“All of that work is still under way. Shadow GBR is made up of the component organisations that will ultimately be part of Great British Railways. I asked Laura Shoaf, chair of shadow GBR, to lead on five priorities for me in the period before we get the legislation through and GBR is established. One of those is about …”

“I want Great British Railways to be established in 2027. The organisation on day one of its existence will be different from the organisation on day 150 and day 200. I anticipate that the establishment of the organisation in Derby will be taking place in 2027, and we are totally committed to your great railway city bei…”

“The previous Government had in place a £2 bus fare cap to try to stimulate bus ridership again after the pandemic. When we came into government I think it was the right decision to provide that £3 cap in the short term. We know how difficult unforeseen price hikes are for people. They are often the hardest thing to dea…”

“It was about providing some certainty to bus passengers about what their outgoings would be in order to manage the transition from the £2 cap.”

“The announcement about the £3 cap was made and it is due to expire at the end of December.”

“This is an issue that we will be working through as part of the spending review. The £3 cap costs us over £100 million a year. At the moment, we give nearly £800 million in other forms of support through the bus services improvement plan and the grants we give to operators. As Jo said, some local transport authorities …”

“Later this year we hope to publish the first new road safety strategy in 10 years.”

“We want to get it right. I have been in post for five months. It has been a source of discussion with me and the junior ministerial team. I said that my Future of Roads Minister was very passionate about pavement parking. The second issue she talked to me about was the road safety strategy. In any other sphere of activ…”

“This is something I am open to considering. I recently received the prevention of future deaths report from the senior coroner in Lancashire. I know that reading that report will be very distressing for the families of the victims who were killed. That of course was a situation where an optician had suggested to three …”