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Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]

My Lords, I fear the sense of anticipation outlined by the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, will be equalled only by the sense of disappointment when I sit down. Speaking in these debates on transport is very difficult. The Minister said at Second Reading, tongue in both cheeks I suspect, that I was a world expert on railways. I was reduced to the ranks earlier by the noble Lord, Lord Foster, who described me only as the world expert on railway signage. The difference is fairly substantial and neither of them is particularly true. I will take it in the way that he meant it, rather than the way he expressed it, as he meant it sincerely.

7.15 pm

I have three brief points on transport and particularly on New Street station. My noble friend Lord Hunt amply set out the difficulties for able-bodied Brummies

to get round it. I am neither of course, although I have lived in Birmingham for 40 years. People who live in the city find it difficult to find their train. You can find a hamburger or a newspaper very easily at New Street Station; finding the right train is much more difficult.

I will confine my remarks to the platforms. For various reasons, all the platforms at New Street— all 18 of them, I think—are divided into A and B ends. They are poorly signposted and it is baffling for people from out of the city. You walk down the stairs and it is not apparent whether you are at the A or the B end. You get on the train in the station and go in the opposite direction to one you wished to go in—it is that bad. Surely the powers that be—I think it is a Network Rail station; the ownership of railway stations is a difficult matter these days—should have the concerns of passengers at the forefront of their minds. As my noble friend said, it is a fine retail centre but not good as a station.

Also, as it is an underground station with tunnels at either end, it is extremely smoky if there is a diesel multiple unit standing in the station. Some of them stand in the station for a long time. Many of the people arriving for—and departing from—the Commonwealth Games will spend some considerable time in the station. It is not a pleasant atmosphere, and these days when we are much more aware of the danger of diesel fumes, for example, it is not to be commended.

Virgin Trains—much missed in my opinion—used to have a spare Voyager diesel multiple unit standing in the sidings in New Street station. I do not know whether its successor, Avanti trains, does the same. The train would stand for four or five hours at a time with its engine running. I do not see the point of that or why no one has realised the danger to those using the station.

Again—I am not trying to demonstrate a particular expertise and the fact that I take some interest in these matters—New Street station should have been resignalled under Network Rail’s plans in 2016. For various, understandable reasons that it would be inappropriate for me to go into, it has not been done. Network Rail is now talking about resignalling the station shortly. I would like to know, and I would like the Minister to find out, what “shortly” means because it is not a simple task to resignal a station such as Birmingham New Street. Its current signalling was installed in 1964. It is time expired. For some reason, that brutalist building at the end of the platform has been listed. It is a typical example of 1960s concrete architecture, but I am no expert. It is a credit to the signallers over the 56 years that a station designed for 600 trains a day in the 1960s now accommodates around 1,400 trains in the course of 24 hours. Resignalling it is going to cause considerable dislocation and delay.

I ask the Minister to talk to her counterparts in the Department for Transport to ensure that resignalling does not take place immediately before, during or immediately after the Commonwealth Games, because it would cause considerable dislocation for passengers using the station. I repeat that these matters are not, strictly speaking, anything for this Minister, but we would like an assurance from her that discussions will take place between her department and the Department

for Transport so that some of these matters can be debated and, perhaps, resolved. There will be an enormous impact on the Commonwealth Games if we get the transport system wrong, but so far it does not appear that Network Rail is making much of an effort to get the transport system, particularly New Street station, right.