Viscount Stansgate (Lab)

My Lords, I rise briefly to support Amendment 133. In the light of the remarks made by the noble Baroness, I point out that, like other parents, I have first-hand knowledge of the way in which young women feel unsafe. My own daughter used the rail network regularly to get back from school, and there were times when she asked me to go to the station to meet her to make sure that she could get home safely, so it is a very serious issue. Amendment 133 was ably moved, if I may put it this way, by my friend, the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, supported by my noble friend Lord Faulkner of Worcester; I apologise to both for not having added my name to their amendment. These short debates related to heritage rail have given Members the opportunity to mention their favourite heritage railways. The noble Baroness herself just mentioned the Great Central Railway, the noble Lord, Lord Evans, referred to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and the noble Lord, Lord Harper, just referred to the Dean Forest Railway. These are all, of course, substantial railways but I just want the Committee to know that they are not all like that. This weekend, I drove past the Mangapps Railway in the Dengie peninsula in Essex. It is a very small heritage rail centre that is family owned, which makes it extremely unusual, but it does a valiant job with the resources that it has, and it has no prospect of ever being connected to a main line. I say to my noble friend the Minister that I know that Governments can sometimes resist amendments and that their officials urge them to resist amendments they think are unnecessary—I understand that that can be at work—but this probing amendment is very modest, necessary and sensible. The noble Lord, Lord Parkinson—I will continue to refer to him as my noble friend in this context—raised the issue of some major accidents. It is true that in the history of the railways, major disasters have been the occasion for change. He mentioned the crash in 1999 on a railway that I took regularly at that time, and the Croydon Tramlink. I journeyed to the House this morning on the Croydon Tramlink and passed the very spot where that terrible accident occurred. I can at least report to the Committee that the speed restrictions in place are very severe and obvious, and I have every hope and expectation that it will never happen again, but it is a constant reminder. Everything that my noble friend said is worthy of serious consideration by the Minister and I look forward to what is said. Surely, it should be possible to have the equivalent for the heritage rail industry of the measure that applies to the other two listed in the amendment.