Speeches by Smith.

“We have talked a lot about mayoral strategic authorities. There is lots of transport legislation going through at the moment with specificities about devolution. We also know that there are more areas than not around the country that do not have mayoral authorities at the moment, and a lot of those have been explicitly…”

“So freight will still be prioritised?”

“Will money be allocated by GBR to them? What has happened in Cornwall is great, but its neighbour Devon does not have a mayor and is not likely to have one any time soon. Is it therefore going to get less money for developing local services than Cornwall, just as an illustration?”

“That links helpfully to my last point on this, because I am conscious of time. Given that, how would GBR be expected to manage its capacity duty in conjunction with its other duties, such as the use of rail freight, on the already congested railway you have just described?”

“I suppose the specific question is around what is currently offered through open access. It makes sense that the existing network would not necessarily be changed, but, on those routes that could now be offered under the current open access system, how would GBR ensure that that competition and opportunity still exists…”

“Yes, sorry; my question was specifically on clause 63.”

“Can you set out the expected development, operating and ongoing upgrade costs of the GBR retail app and website, which you are suggesting are going to happen and which are set out in the Bill? How will the Department demonstrate that this represents good value for money for taxpayers, particularly given that high-quali…”

“You have not actually answered my question. My question was, what are you going to do to incentivise performance along the lines of that? It is great to have that ambition—I hear that and it is laudable—but in the process of getting from A to B, from where we are now to this utopia of perfect performance, what will hap…”

“Will it essentially be a rebadging of the National Rail app? There is already a website where you can buy tickets at a national level through the National Rail app.”

“You are right—there is no incentive at the moment, because actually, it is not the train companies that pay it, but Government. Forgive me on that point, but in terms of how you would use it to drive performance, now that it is the Government delivering the railway service and having to pay out delay repay, is it going…”

“At the moment, we have the delay repay system in place. If a particular train company is not delivering its passengers to where they need to be at the right time, it has to give money back. I have certainly benefited from that in the past, in getting to where I live. What are you going to do about incentives to improve…”

“But the National Rail website allows you to buy tickets, doesn’t it? I do not use it, because I do not find it very helpful.”

“Are you fairly confident that the Secretary of State will not end up running it by decree, and that separation exists?”

“But we do not know what is in either of them yet.”

“Sorry—this year as in by December, or during the passage of the Bill in the Commons?”

“The Secretary of State may issue directions and guidance to GBR in the exercise of its statutory functions. Could those provisions not fatally undermine the concept of a railway run without daily micromanagement from Whitehall?”

“You mentioned the organisation’s agility at the beginning of your remarks. If we think about how Parliament works, ultimately, if there is an issue with GBR, my understanding is that the Secretary of State will have to come before Parliament and talk about that. How is that relationship going to work, and how understan…”

“Very quickly, do you think that there needs to be a more level playing field between GBR and third-party retailers on the face of the Bill?”

“But is the Secretary of State not just going to do the same thing and blame the devolved people? I do not understand how the devolved people are somehow going to be different from a franchise in terms of accountability.”

“But that sounds like quite a short-term plan, and what we are looking at is a long-term strategy. I guess I am just probing again about how, as elected representatives—actual MPs representing the public—we are supposed to hold GBR and the Secretary of State to account on the long-term strategy alongside the day-to-day …”