Speeches by Turner.

“Will the current split between regulated fares and unregulated fares be retained?”

“Good morning. I am interested in those aspects of long-term rail strategy that might fall outside the gift of the Department to control. Minister, you have already touched on housing, which is one area that might be relevant. There was also a time when the then Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy su…”

“So within the first funding period—before any later changes might be made—if GBR had a very good, very efficient infrastructure programme and had an underspend, would it be able to redirect some of that funding to a different item, which might fall under passenger operations?”

“So that is yet to be determined?”

“Then there is the Secretary of State’s duty to set out an objective of balancing overall costs. Costs for commuters might mean something very different from levels of affordability and costs for business passengers or leisure passengers. How will the interests of different types of passengers be balanced?”

“It does. In terms of the formal mechanisms, clause 5 says Great British Railways “may enter into arrangements” with such bodies. I think that is the successor to the old section 20 and section 13 agreements, but “may” is quite passive language. For the mayoral combined areas, is it your expectation that GBR will enter …”

“I want to move on to funding. The factsheet and the Bill provide a good level of detail about infrastructure funding, but I am interested in understanding more about passenger funding. The factsheet says that the existing powers allow “the government to provide transparent and flexible funding to the railway industry”—…”

“Thank you very much. I entirely take the point about mixed-use areas of the network. When I think about the west midlands, I do not think anyone would ever want to take on the local management of parts of the west coast main line, for example. In the past, under the old section 20 agreements, great things were accompli…”

“I have a final question, if I may. The legislation as drafted is phrased in terms of single agreements, but there are areas of the network where there is perhaps a case for greater local management that crosses borders. A good example is the CrossCountry service between Birmingham and Nottingham, which has been a bit o…”

“I think we do understand that as a Committee. The last point is important in terms of the public perception of funding of the railway and the spending of public money. Moving beyond that, Ms Ryan, you made the point about wanting GBR to have as much flexibility as possible between capital and revenue, if I understood t…”

“You said the new guidance for mayoral areas will be published soon; how soon are we talking about? Will that come in the next couple of months?”

“I have a question about what will change on the network immediately after the creation of GBR. We have talked a lot about passenger services, but it seems to me that there is a lot of opportunity in station management to make changes that passengers will notice. Within Birmingham, there is a huge disparity between stat…”

“To go back to the last point in the question, on paper should we expect to see the amount of subsidy going into infrastructure fall because of the absence of track-access charges, and the subsidy going to passenger operations rise? It is a technical accounting exercise, but I want to be precise.”

“Sorry—you made reference to additional guidance.”

“Merry Christmas to you, Mr Speaker, and all the staff of the House. There is no such thing as cruelty-free fur, as the last Labour Government recognised when they banned the fur farming industry in the UK. That case has been made powerfully by my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West and Islwyn (Ruth Jones) and organ…”

“Do you wish to come in, Mr Reeve?”

“Mr Ross, I am curious about how the concessionary model will interact with GBR. There was a time in the 1990s when it looked like British Rail might have survived, but in a form where it bid alongside private operators for franchises. On the future of the Merseyrail concession, the next time it comes to market, do you …”

“Of course, Network Rail owns the infrastructure. In my area, I have seen good collaboration, but the interests of different parties might not always point in the same direction. Do you see tensions between local aspirations and Network Rail’s operation of the infrastructure at the moment, and do you think there are les…”

“What about post the Bill?”

“Funding streams for passenger services and for infrastructure in Scotland are expected to remain separate. Do you think there may be a tension there? Will that impose a limitation on the extent to which track and train can be integrated?”