L

Lord Berkeley (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 September 2026

Debate

Railways Bill

Contribution

My Lords, before my noble friend responds, I would just like to make two points. First, I support the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, on steel products—the noble Lord, Lord Harper, also mentioned that. After some of the derailments in the last few months, there will be quite strong pressure to look at the quality of the rail and where it is manufactured, apart from whether it is laid properly. I think that this amendment is important so that GBR has the full freedom to procure the rail from wherever it believes gives technically the best quality. I do not know whether that applies also to something such as HS1 and whether Network Rail is involved in it. It would be good to know from my noble friend whether HS1 rails are out of the procurement or separate. Secondly, I think on previous days we discussed wifi on trains and my noble friend was not very forthcoming about when we might be able to have wifi on trains that actually works. We have proven it on one train in the south-west, and the south-west offered to do the procurement, but, of course, my noble friend said that only the Department for Transport can procure wifi. I have to ask my noble friend about wifi for the whole network. I suppose that it is only the intercity type trains, but which trains will be included and when will we be able to see the result and be able to use it on trains?

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