Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)

The noble Baroness is right that railway improvements, sadly, take a very long time. They take a long time to be delivered safely, unlike in the Victorian era when hundreds of people were killed during their construction, and many of them have to be done on the operating railway, which can tolerate some closures but cannot tolerate everything. The Chancellor spoke correctly in saying that the benefits will start to be felt in the 2030s. In fact, I think some benefits will be felt before then, because we must improve Leeds station and a new station in Bradford will make a significant difference to Bradford’s economic prospects. I cannot tell the noble Baroness precisely when all the parts of the improvement will be delivered, because we need to plan this out properly, but the Government hope that, with a general consensus about the economic prospects of the north of England being improved by better transport, we have for the first time seen a plan that sets that out in a progressive way that enables it to be delivered. The hope is that, whoever the Government are—hopefully, this Government will be here for a long time—it can be delivered over the course of a number of Parliaments. The noble Baroness will of course recall that the most difficult occasion in the recent history of railway planning was the peremptory cancellation of phase 2a of HS2, which was done, sadly, without any contemplation of a replacement. If future Governments were to modify this plan, one hopes they would contemplate the effects of what they were doing, in order to be able to deliver the plan roughly as it is set out today.