Dr Phillip Lee, MP for Bracknell, has welcomed today’s Government’s announcement that passengers will benefit from extra seats in the Thames Valley.

Passengers on some of the country’s busiest rail routes are set to benefit from extra seats Rail Minister Theresa Villiers announced today. Passengers in the Thames Valley will benefit from nearly 4,500 additional seats each day into and out of London Paddington- and increase of around 9% of current services. The majority of these services will also provide additional capacity into Reading.

The extra seats are being added thanks to Government funding for an additional 48 carriages on First Great Western services which run through Reading and the Thames Valley and into London Paddington as well as in Bristol and the far south west of England. 

Dr Lee commented: “This is great news for rail passengers in Bracknell constituency who travel via Reading. I am well aware of the problems of rail overcrowding left behind by Labour, so I am pleased to see this Government taking action. This is one of the busiest rail routes in the country, so it is very welcome that we are investing in 4,500 additional seats each day into and out of London Paddington. It will also provide important support for economic growth.”

Dr Phillip Lee, MP for Bracknell, has welcomed new measures to provide more car parking spaces in town centres. Anti-car red tape imposed by Labour is being scrapped, tackling the parking misery faced by shoppers.

Centrally-imposed limits on town centre parking spaces will be removed, helping to provide a big boost to struggling high streets and small shops, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced this week. National parking restrictions set by Whitehall have until now dictated the number of parking spaces a council is permitted to grant, often with a cap that limits the spaces town centres can offer even when they want to offer more.

Dr Phillip Lee said: “The return of fairer parking is great news for Bracknell, its shoppers and businesses. We are calling off Labour’s war on the motorist. We want to see more parking spaces to help small shops prosper on local high streets and assist mums struggling with their family shop.  Labour’s planning rules hiked up parking charges; they raised business rates by stealth and their licensing laws made towns less safe at night, driving people away. In addition to ripping up the red tape on parking, this Government has scrapped Whitehall rules on town centres, doubled small business rate relief for two years and is giving councils more powers to tackle late-night antisocial behavior.”

Reports today that the Labour Party is considering re-nationalising the railways ‘North of the Border’ should re-ignite the discussion over the role of the state in public transportation. The last Conservative government’s performance in this area was far from ideal. In an admirable attempt to push through privatisation quickly in the mid-1990s, the Conservative administration decided to use the same model as that previously used for the privatisation of the utilities, i.e. one company owning the network (now Network Rail), other companies delivering services on that same network. The decision to privatise the railways was made primarily to allow private sector investment in an infrastructure sorely in need of funds. The Conservative government rightly believed that the funds necessary could not be found solely from the public purse. The private investment record since bears out that belief. The problem, however, is that the separation of track from rail has been far from successful.

Despite the problems of the privatisation model implemented, to re-nationalise now would be a step backwards. People often cite the French rail service as evidence of the need for a nationalised rail service. Although the SNCF operates an outstanding service, at what cost to the taxpayer? It has never made a profit. Japanese rail companies, however, are privately owned and no one can suggest that services there are less than outstanding (I speak from personal experience).

I have always believed that the railways should be divided (and owned) in a similar way to the pre-British Rail era, i.e. the same company owns the rails, trains and stations. Companies such as LMS, GWR and LNER were able to invest for the future, safe in the knowledge that they would retain the right to run train services in their region of the country. Government’s role could then be more strategic – insisting on the maintenance of local services, overseeing safety, etc.

Transport policy is slowly climbing the political agenda. With climate change at the fore-front of people’s minds, and the increasing density of living accomodation, the need for fast, effective and environmentally-sound public transportation can only increase. The Conservative Party can lead the way in this area by using the private sector to deliver the best rail services. By going down the re-nationalisation path, the Labour Party is offering us an open goal. Let’s make sure we are on target.