Speeches by Glover.

“Intriguing idea, yes.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) for securing this important debate, which builds on some themes that were discussed in a Westminster Hall debate a few months ago on the subject of walking and cycling safely to school. …”

“Q11. On a recent visit to the UK Space Agency, based in my Oxfordshire constituency, I learned of the huge value created by our space sector, generating more than £7 for every £1 invested. Given the Government’s decision to scrap the UKSA as an executive agency, will the Prime Minister guarantee its international credi…”

“I accept all those points. We are not the only place that is doing ETCS on existing railways, but it is very good to hear the commitment to it. On electrification, I think we would like to ask some more questions.”

“To add to that, we have been talking about giving the supply chain confidence. It is hard to think of a better example for a project that has been yes/no, on/off or stop/start than midland main line electrification. We have been told so many times, “Yes, it’s definitely happening.” The supply chain has mobilised and th…”

“I briefly note on the previous discussion that it is not as if we have a huge swathe of electrification. Russia, Hungary and Greece have a higher percentage of electrification than we do, so it is quite extraordinary that we find this so difficult. This is the mistake that has been made. We keep talking about electrifi…”

“Moving on from electrification, because I am sure lots of people have had enough of that, to the wider point, we have heard through some of the evidence that we have received during this inquiry that there is a view that planning for enhancements typically follows what is politically expedient rather than being based o…”

“Lord Hendy, one of your predecessors, Huw Merriman, told us that control period funding cycles should be reviewed so that contracts for half-completed projects shouldn’t fall off a cliff at the end of a cycle. We have already touched on this a little bit. Would you agree with his analysis?”

“Yes, thank you, Chair. We have covered some of this already. There are a lot of challenges coming with rolling stock, as I am sure you agree. We have class 150 Sprinters that are now 40 years old. That is very old for a diesel train. There are other diesel fleets from the late ’80s and early ’90s that are rapidly agein…”

“I am pleased to hear that. I very much agree with that point. One would hope that a sensible policy towards rolling stock procurement and rolling stock strategy would be analysis of what type of train is needed for what type of route, and then it wouldn’t matter what the historical franchise map was. Let’s procure that…”

“Just a fairly specific point about the relationship with the new infrastructure strategy, which promised an infrastructure pipeline with an interactive portal. What rail schemes will be included as part of that? Perhaps the real question is what the relationship is going to be between RNEP and major schemes and the ove…”

“We have already talked a little bit about how Scotland takes a different approach to electrification. There are other examples of how other countries seem increasingly to do things as standard that we think are exceptional, very expensive or too difficult here. We are going to talk a bit more about rolling stock later.…”

“It is very pleasing to hear your strong enthusiasm for ETCS digital signalling here, but it has been a very long journey between the first scheme on the Cambrian 20 years ago in Wales to the next large-scale deployment—apart from a bit of Thameslink core—being the east coast main line. Since that time there has been lo…”

“I think that is an over-generous review, Chair, but thank you very much. Much of the Government’s written evidence talked about the need to balance giving certainty to industry on the one hand with allowing Government flexibility, for example through the spending review process. That approach contrasts quite markedly w…”

“I get the point about the changed market, although the figures I have seen for most European countries are that their rail use is now above pre-pandemic levels, whereas ours are still significantly below. Perhaps it is the relationship between the two and which comes first, the lower demand or the improved product. Tha…”

“Feel free.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I commend the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Connor Naismith) for securing the debate and for his wide-ranging introductory speech. The hon. Member told us that 70 million passengers a year and 40% of freight use the west coast main line, highlighting it…”

“I join the hon. Member in paying tribute to our armed forces. He has made some very good points, but does he not accept that the Act that he is defending, and that the Government are committed to repealing, has been opposed by all major political parties in Northern Ireland? Is it not important, when paying tribute to …”

“Thank you for that. It would be very concerning if your predecessors thought that, as the original scheme always envisaged a lot of running on the west coast and east coast main lines north of the extremities of HS2, but perhaps we will explore that a bit further on.”

“The Stewart review praised the existence of an HS2 Minister for part of the last Government. What do you feel the pros and cons are of having a ministerial post dedicated to projects such as HS2? Is that something the new Government would consider recreating?”