Speeches by Mayhew.

“I am grateful to the hon. Member, but he will recognise that if we look at the safety record under privatisation as a whole, compared with nationalisation previously under British Rail, safety has increased enormously and I am pleased to say that, prior to nationalisation, we operate one of the safest rail systems in t…”

“I note the Minister’s words about new clause 48. This Report stage follows 16 sittings of the Public Bill Committee, when I and the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover), tabled well over 200 amendments, of which more than 120 were put to a Division. It is fair to say, ther…”

“The hon. Member will be aware that I have already addressed that question in answer to one of his colleagues, but if international companies, whether state-owned or private, make a tender that is more attractive than any other operator applying for that tender, the people who benefit most are the taxpayers and service …”

“My right hon. Friend rightly says that the needs of disabled passengers such as his constituent, whom he so ably represents, are very important. That is one performance indicator that the Government should impose on GBR, but is it not ridiculous that we have to have Government action to impose KPIs on a railway? We sho…”

“I have addressed that point, so I want to move on. We have the key challenge that the division of track and train at times created some perverse incentives between the track operator and the service operator, and this too often led to some inefficiencies. This Government, however, inherited from the Conservatives a sol…”

“The opportunity to solve the problem was presented to this Government on a plate, and they could have looked competent. It has been deeply frustrating to watch them take a good idea, then sow the seeds for its ultimate failure by insisting on the ideological imposition of nationalisation on to GBR and losing the focus …”

“The Father of the House is nailing me down to a cast-iron assurance at the Dispatch Box. I am not in a position to do that, but I fully expect to be in this role in a future Government and look forward to the opportunity to encourage open access to provide the through train that the right hon. Gentleman needs or for GB…”

“I quite agree with my right hon. Friend. It seems that the Government have insisted on going back to the future: back to the 1970s, with state control and a revamped British Railways. They have even chosen the same logo, which I think tells us a lot about their intentions.”

“I stand to correct the hon. Gentleman: the most punctual is, I believe, Greater Anglia, which services my constituency, but the point he makes is a good one. The greater integration of track and train brings greater efficiencies and leads to greater punctuality. That is exactly why that was Conservative party policy go…”

“The hon. Member will be aware that I have already addressed that question in answer to one of his colleagues, but if international companies, whether state-owned or private, make a tender that is more attractive than any other operator applying for that tender, the people who benefit most are the taxpayers and service …”

“The sheer number of amendments demonstrates that this remains a deeply flawed Bill based on a key error: preferring political ideology to practical solutions, state control to dynamic management. By doing so, I fear that the Government have wasted this generation’s best opportunity for effective rail reform.”

“Finally, on fare discounts in clause 34, Labour has protected discount fare schemes only for the young, the elderly and the disabled. In Committee, I pointed out to the Government that they had overlooked railcards for veterans and their families and discounts for 26 to 30-year-olds. I had assumed that it was an oversi…”

“I note the Minister’s words about new clause 48. This Report stage follows 16 sittings of the Public Bill Committee, when I and the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover), tabled well over 200 amendments, of which more than 120 were put to a Division. It is fair to say, ther…”

“What is left of genuine competition, open-access operators and freight? They will be left to the mercy of GBR as they fight for access to the network. The independent economic regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, is having its role largely abolished by this legislation. For the first time, GBR will be given the powe…”

“Passenger numbers will no longer be the key driver of success. As an engineering-led business, the incentive will be to increase reliability by reducing services, and the Government are already doing that. Look at Avanti West Coast and its timetable for the summer. It has already been nationalised, and it has been dire…”

“There are many other needed amendments to this deeply flawed Bill, such as those submitted by my hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild) on the importance of Ely junction for freight growth—I have to declare an interest; it affects my constituency of Broadland and Fakenham as well—by my hon. Friend t…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Member, but he will recognise that if we look at the safety record under privatisation as a whole, compared with nationalisation previously under British Rail, safety has increased enormously and I am pleased to say that, prior to nationalisation, we operate one of the safest rail systems in t…”

“The Father of the House is nailing me down to a cast-iron assurance at the Dispatch Box. I am not in a position to do that, but I fully expect to be in this role in a future Government and look forward to the opportunity to encourage open access to provide the through train that the right hon. Gentleman needs or for GB…”

“My right hon. Friend rightly says that the needs of disabled passengers such as his constituent, whom he so ably represents, are very important. That is one performance indicator that the Government should impose on GBR, but is it not ridiculous that we have to have Government action to impose KPIs on a railway? We sho…”

“I have addressed that point, so I want to move on. We have the key challenge that the division of track and train at times created some perverse incentives between the track operator and the service operator, and this too often led to some inefficiencies. This Government, however, inherited from the Conservatives a sol…”