L

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 14 July 2025

Debate

Road and Rail Projects

Contribution

I thank my noble friend for those observations. He is right that the Government would encourage more freight on railways—there was a Question on that very subject at Oral Questions this afternoon—which is why they are committed to a long-term rail freight increase target. He will be pleased to know that rail freight grew by 5% last year. It is important when determining timetables for the railways to leave capacity in the right places and at the right times for freight traffic to increase while not constraining the desire to operate a better passenger service. That is one of the reasons why Great British Railways, when it is established, will have control of the timetable to make those best possible judgments, which are not currently made for the railway as a whole despite the fact that it is so obviously a whole network. That is why the public support the Government’s position on managing the railway as a whole network.

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