Speeches by Mayer.

“Do you feel that there has been a change with this newish Government, in the sense that there is now more of a Cabinet-wide approach in terms of interest in investing in and enhancing our railway?”

“The Department’s written evidence said that producing a pipeline that provides medium to long-term certainty is “a challenging ambition”, but that the rail network enhancements pipeline approach aims to balance that with the need to retain flexibility. Given that the last Government found that very tricky, are you conf…”

“The process at the moment involves going through multiple stages from development and design through to delivery. Last week in evidence on HS2, you very much told us that the design phase was vital to make sure that we had everything planned correctly so that the building bit worked brilliantly. Is there a danger with …”

“I completely understand that in the development phase, but is there not a case that perhaps the design and the delivery funding should be put together more, to ensure that we are not wasting money and that it gets done?”

“Finally, Sir Andrew Haines told us that he thought that the RNEP is “a flawed proposition” because it is owned politically and therefore subject to shifting political priorities. Would you agree with that?”

“I am pleased to hear that my hon. Friend gets to visit lots of primary schools. During the debate I have heard about so many schools all over the country. However, the people of Bidwell West, in my constituency, are still waiting for a primary school. It was promised in plans and brochures when they were buying their n…”

“Third time lucky? What are we doing differently?”

“Going back to the Olympics being the exemplar of a successful project, that had a very hard deadline. Is one of the problems with these projects that they do not?”

“Mr Wild, HS2 Ltd was heavily criticised by the Secretary of State for providing a revised plan for Euston station that was supposed to be more affordable, but in reality was £400 million more expensive than the previous plan. Can you give any insight into how that might have happened?”

“The Stewart review states: “In my opinion there is a history of gold-plating in railway projects in the UK, especially compared to international benchmarks.” Is this a culture that you recognise? Are people still coming to you prioritising best over affordable?”

“Shall I ask that, then? The next stage of HS2’s construction is moving from the civil engineering stage towards railway systems and integrating with the national network. How are you drawing on your experience at Crossrail to ensure that this stage is going to be a success?”

“I welcome that, through Best Start, Central Bedfordshire is getting funding for a family hub for the first time. Will the Secretary of State explain how this will be linked to areas of deprivation and urge the independent council to look closely at the statistics that show that places such as Dunstable and Houghton Reg…”

“At present do you feel that there is clear accountability between mayoral combined authorities and Network Rail, in terms of delivering enhancements?”

“I am a great fan of passenger transport executives, being probably the only MP who ever referenced them in their maiden speech.”

“How do we square the circle of the sector wanting certainty for investment while projects have to go through many stages of development between them first being announced and confirmed and spades in the ground?”

“Absolutely. We have heard a lot about partnership, predominantly from the previous panel as well as from you. Partnership always sounds brilliant as a concept, but it involves people agreeing with each other. Is there a danger that, as we go further down that model with the reforms that are coming in of giving more str…”

“No, don’t worry. Liz, you said earlier that one of your main objectives was to get more people on to trains and grow the revenue. Just so that I understand: who is getting that revenue at the moment? Who gets the money from the tickets?”

“Do you think there is any danger that you might, sort of, be treated as a bank? The Government do not have enough money to do one thing or another, so they come to the mayoral combined authority to top it up.”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. I know she is normally a champion for trains in her constituency, so I welcome her branching out into buses. The Campaign for Better Transport says that £1 of investment in buses brings £4.55 in benefits, and I am absolutely up for that. While we are on the subject of better buse…”

“I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allowing this debate to take place. I very much welcome the investment in transport—especially public transport—in the spending review. The commitment is really clear; for example, there is £2.3 billion for the local transport grant, which will support local transport improv…”