argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Paul Stuart Scully (Conservative, Centre-right): This was supposed to be the light at the end of the tunnel, but that is actually a train coming fast the other way. Commuters do not want to play the blame game. They just want their trains to work now. The short-term view of sacking a franchisee overnight would really just mean the same people running the same lines with differently spray-painted trains. I want us to look back and find out how nobody, but nobody, thought to postpone the process, but we should also look to the future: will the Secretary of State tell us how many lifelines GTR needs before we realise that it should have no place on the UK’s rail network?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said, in the case of GTR I had the chief executive in my office three weeks before saying that it would be fine. In the case of the teams running the Northern branch, they indicated to my Department that it would be a difficult start, but not on anything like this scale. I have set up the independent inquiry into what has gone wrong because I am not alone in this. When I talk to other people—on the independent assurance panel and the board set up to oversee the introduction of the timetable, the Rail North team and other people on the Rail North board, and the chair of Transport for the North—it seems that nobody was expecting this. That is completely unacceptable. We need to understand why it has happened and ensure that it can never happen again.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Mary Josephine Robinson (Conservative, Centre-right): My constituents have suffered huge delays, cancelled services and unacceptable travel uncertainty. What reassurances will the Secretary of State give Northern commuters that they will quickly have a functioning service and that pre-existing timetable gaps locally will also be addressed?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I have been very clear with the companies, as has the Rail North Partnership, that they need to get back to a position of stability. I expect that to mean that they will be running slightly more trains overall across the network than they were prior to 20 May, and that they will move over the next few weeks to reintroduce services in order to get back up to the expanded level that was supposed to exist. If there are individual issues, as I know there are in my hon. Friend’s constituency, the rail Minister and I will happily sit down and look at how we can address them as we move towards future timetable changes.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): Both Northern rail and GTR have a whole lot of questions to answer and they are in the last chance saloon, so the hon. Lady is absolutely right. On the comments that her constituents rightly make about the trains, it is time for all those trains to be replaced, and over the coming months they are going to be.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
William Peter Wragg (Conservative, Centre-right): The announcement of an inquiry and compensation is of course welcome. Leaving aside the atrocious implementation of the new Northern timetable, will my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State bang heads together to sort out the morning peak-time 45-minute gap in services that is affecting my constituents so badly?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I and my Department have taken the situation seriously for a long time. With regard to lines like the Furness line, this is why we are investing in new trains to provide a better service. The Cumbrian Coast line has to put up with knackered old trains that should have been sent to the scrapyard years ago. It is finally going to get new trains in the coming months, and they are long overdue.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Stephen Daniel Double (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and his commitment to investigate what has gone wrong and to take appropriate action as soon as possible. Does he believe that part of the answer to ensuring that this situation never happens again is combining the operation of track and train under one operator?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): Bringing track and train back together is part of the solution for the railways. I am absolutely sure that the railways are going to have to change quite a lot as a result of what has gone on, which has been completely unacceptable. Their ways of working have got to change. We are going to need a reshaped approach for the future.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): It is the duty of all train companies to ensure that that happens. The rolling programme of train replacement means that all trains will be disability-compliant. Every train in the north is being replaced with either a brand new train or a refurbished, as-new train. I will continue to make the point to all train operators—as will the Under-Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Ms Ghani), who is responsible for accessibility—that they have to make a priority of this.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Damien Moore (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend has already visited my constituency and seen the level of frustration and concern about the timetabling. Will he continue to engage positively with me and with rail passengers’ groups so that we get the best possible service for Southport rail users?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. We need to work together to make sure that we get some services back to Piccadilly, which I know is very important to so many of his constituents. He and I will work together on that.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a very serious point, and I am happy to make sure that it is dealt with. There were some similar issues with Southern in relation to Oyster card holders. We need to make sure that the travellers who should be entitled to compensation do get that compensation. That is why we are not rushing into announcing details of the scheme right now: we are going to make it right.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Mark Andrew Menzies (Conservative, Centre-right): For over six months, my constituents have been using bus services during electrification of the Blackpool to Preston railway line. The current chaos therefore comes at the worst possible time when people were looking forward to a good service, and they are absolutely gutted. Can the Secretary of State assure me that they will be able to enjoy the multi-million pound investment that has gone in? When will he put the full force of his weight behind Northern Rail to make sure that it fixes this problem now? Can my constituents look forward to getting the railway that they had hoped for?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend puts his finger on the frustrations. On his line, the disruption has been a result of long overdue investment in improvements for the future and a commitment to railways in the north. It is a tragedy that the electrification delay has had such disastrous effects for timetabling across the whole area. We need to sort out these problems in the short term. We need to get the electrification of his route up and running as quickly as possible so that all the improvements that were planned actually happen.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I never took that decision in the first place. It is my view that services running outside London should not be controlled by an elected representative inside London. The approach that we have taken in the north, the west midlands and elsewhere, and have offered in London, is one of partnership so that we get involvement from both sides. That is the right way to do it. With regard to handing over services to the Mayor, London Overground is a franchise run by Arriva, the same company that runs Northern, so I am at a loss as to why people think that that is a magic solution for the future.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Maria Colette Caulfield (Conservative, Centre-right): Do we really need a review before action is taken? People who commute from Lewes, Polegate, Seaford, Newhaven and many more stations have had to endure not just the timetable changes, but 18 months of strike action and 18 months of misery while the London Bridge works were happening, and we now have fewer trains than ever before. When trains do run, they sometimes do not stop, as happened in Lewes and Polegate today, and when they do stop, passengers cannot get on because of short formations, with trains going down from 12 carriages to four today. The only question my constituents have is, "When is Southern Rail going to lose its franchise?" If I can be helpful to the Secretary of State, the answer should be "Now."
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): The important thing to do is to make sure that these problems are sorted out. It may be that at the end of this there is a franchise change, but I want to do anything like that in the right way, in the right timeframe, and in a way that is justifiable. I have to fulfil contractual commitments. I have to look at where culpability lies. We need to go through that process first. In the meantime, having short-formation trains on Southern, which otherwise is performing pretty well, is completely unacceptable, and it needs to fix that straight away.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I have mentioned to the House the industry bodies that we have put in place. It is only a week since Labour was demanding that the railways were run by rail professionals—actually, they are. Those rail professionals have been overseeing this process, they got it wrong, and that is why we are having the inquiry.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
David Thomas Morris (Conservative, Centre-right): I have to thank the Secretary of State, because he has tried to accommodate me three times today. I think we should have some brevity in the House, because parties of all colours have the same problems. The reality is that this is a mess. We have to get a realistic timetable in order and make sure that when these train companies cancel—I saw it today at Lancaster station, when Northern cancelled on the commuters that I was standing on the platform with—they have alternative transport already in place. I ask the Secretary of State to sort these companies out, but in a measured way, because I realise the pressures he is under, and I am mature enough to realise the contractual obligations that he has to consider.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): The Labour party keeps saying that it wants the Government to run the railways. We do not at the moment. The temporary Northern timetable has been put in place this week. Some adjustment of rosters is taking place right now. I hope and believe that by the middle of the week, we will return to a point of stability, with a lower level of cancellations than today and tomorrow and getting back to a reasonably dependable timetable within a day or two. That is what I am expecting, that is what we have been promised, and that is what we will be demanding of Northern Rail.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Huw William Merriman (Conservative, Centre-right): Thank you, Mr Speaker—I’m always your man In the two years that the Secretary of State for Transport has been in post and I have sat on the Transport Committee, he has always been very honest, open and direct about the need for change. For any project management exercise to fail to get the sign-off from Network Rail and for it to find out only three weeks before, by which time it is too late to turn the oil tanker around, has got to be a spectacular failure. Who was the project manager and penholder for this exercise?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a very interesting question. My view is that the Network Rail timetabling process has gone badly wrong, and I cannot understand why GTR did not raise the alarm. I have asked Professor Glaister to go through all this because I want to understand exactly where the accountability should lie and be able to take appropriate action.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very clear that we have to provide a compensation scheme of the kind that was delivered to Southern passengers after the huge disruption they experienced a year ago. I am very clear that that is what will happen.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Jeremy Mark Quin (Conservative, Centre-right): To reassure you, Mr Speaker, an hour’s wait is sadly not unusual for Horsham right now. I wish we were getting back to a far more regular service. Significant investment has been put into our line, which was meant to result in a far better service for our commuters. I welcome an independent inquiry to find out what on earth has gone wrong, but in the meantime, can we at least ensure that where there are fewer, busier trains, they are not short-form, so that people can get on them?
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): The work on Dawlish has already started, as the hon. Gentleman knows. In terms of the infrastructure period that is about to start, delivering that work is, in my view, the most important capital project in the country. The most important priority on my desk now is self-evidently to get this sorted.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): We are working extremely hard to make sure that this does not happen again. We have to deal with the short-term problem. We also have to make sure that this is not repeated with the December timetable change or future timetable changes. Where major investment leads to a major change in services, we cannot have a situation where that causes chaos on the network again.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): What we are delivering is this: starting next spring, the £3 billion upgrade to the transpennine railway will make a huge difference to journeys; the TransPennine franchise is bringing in brand new intercity express trains in the coming months; and of course, Humberside will also benefit from the huge investment taking place in new trains on the east coast main line.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): My understanding is that there is a need to align train crew rosters with the new timetable. That will take another 48 hours, but I am assured by Northern that the new timetable introduced this week should, as the week goes by, restore stability to that network. That is certainly—absolutely 100%—my expectation. It is essential for the hon. Lady’s constituents and that has to be delivered.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): The whole point about the new timetable—it has clearly not worked and it must work—is actually to deliver a more reliable service through reshaping timetables in a way that means there is less congestion and more services can be run for passengers. This has clearly not worked at all. This timetable was put in place for the best possible reasons and it has so far delivered the worst possible outcomes. That must change.
Rail Timetabling — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Transportation
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course, the reality is that the most important thing, as I have set out, is that Northern Rail needs to deliver this week, as it has promised, a more stable timetable and something that people can rely on. Step by step, it then needs to put back in place the additional services that were supposed to deliver better options for the hon. Lady’s constituents and others. That clearly has not happened and I deeply regret that. It is unconscionable, and infuriating to all of us in government, that the things that were supposed to deliver a better outcome for everyone have not done so. We will not be anything other than relentless in pushing the rail industry to ensure that those benefits are delivered. They should be there now. They are not. It is worse than it should be. That has to change and it has to change quickly.
Nuclear Power — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Energy
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): I am disappointed that the hon. Lady did not continue in the spirit in which she opened her contribution. This is an important moment, and we are beginning a negotiation on a project that will supply energy to this country for the next 60 years, until towards the end of the century, which will create jobs and reduce our carbon emissions. She said that her party supported the proposal and that there was cross-party consensus—one could be forgiven for missing that in her tone—and it is important to establish that, because it is evident that any 60-year project will take place over the life of successive Governments. This country has given nuclear investors confidence over time that there is a strong commitment to such major infrastructure projects, so I hope that she will back the commitments that she and her party made in their manifesto last year to support new nuclear and recognise the considerable opportunities, as she put it, for nuclear power internationally and domestically The hon. Lady asked about the financing model. She urged me in a letter to reflect on the recommendations of the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee to explore alternative financing models that can reduce the price of the electricity that is generated. That is exactly what I have set out—I have followed the recommendations of the NAO and the PAC. We are entering a negotiation—I think somewhere in her remarks there was a welcome for that—but the essence of doing so is that a deal has not been agreed. We need to explore that, and it is subject to the very tests that she set out and that the NAO and the PAC observed are required, including on value for money On safety, the hon. Lady should be reassured—there are many hon. Members who are familiar with the nuclear industry in this country—that the safety standards operated through our independent nuclear inspectorate are the highest in the world, and that the generic design assessment is the most exacting in the world. We always abide by the rulings and requirements of the independent regulators so that we can have full confidence in the safety of this important industry Finally, the hon. Lady mentioned other potential investments, including the proposal for renewable power in Swansea. She knows—we have had exchanges about it across the Dispatch Boxes—that I believe in a diversity of energy supply, but we need to make sure that value for money is offered for taxpayers and bill payers. A rigorous assessment is required and, as I have done today, I will update the House when the process is concluded.
Nuclear Power — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: International Affairs
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend takes a great interest in this issue. When I made my statement on Hinkley he advised that we should consider using the Government’s balance sheet in that way, and we will consider that as part of the discussions. As for the contracts that are entered into, one of the requirements of the state aid regime is that any contracts have to be on a non-discriminatory basis, which will guide the letting of any such contract.
Nuclear Power — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Energy
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. On statements to the House, I think all Members would recognise that I have come to the House at the earliest possible opportunity. It was today that the decision was taken to enter into negotiations. Members will know that I always keep the House updated and always will It is a bit rich of the hon. Gentleman to complain that new nuclear power will come online later in the 2020s, given that he and his colleagues have resisted the replacement of our nuclear fleet, which we have known needs to be replaced for all this time. It is an act of responsibility on the part of this Government that we are planning ahead for the replacement of the 20% of our electricity that is currently generated from nuclear power. It is important for consumers in Scotland and in the rest of the United Kingdom that we do that The hon. Gentleman criticised what he regarded as the value for money of the Hinkley project. He will have heard me say at the time that that represents the highest price we will pay for new nuclear. I expect future new nuclear power stations to come in at a lower price. I have made it explicit today that that is a requirement of the negotiation. However, this is the beginning of a formal period of negotiation The recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office have shaped the approach we are taking. The value for money test has to be met, and at all the key milestones I will ensure that Parliament has the opportunity to scrutinise the progress of the negotiations.
Nuclear Power — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Energy
Michael Fallon (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that this welcome announcement and the lower strike price that is being targeted underline the importance, if we want to keep costs falling, of securing continuity in the nuclear programme, so that the supply chain and the skills academy can look beyond Wylfa to Sizewell C, Oldbury, Bradwell and Moorside?
Nuclear Power — House of Commons, 2018-06-04
Topic: Energy
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. He contributed with distinction as an Energy Minister and therefore recognises that if we are to achieve not only the full cost benefits but the industrial and employment benefits, it is necessary to show that we have a pipeline that is being delivered in a steady and orderly way. If we do that, as we have done with offshore wind, in which he was instrumental, we can establish an industry that not only supplies to UK consumers at a lower cost but offers a big export opportunity.