Heidi Alexander
MP for Swindon South · Labour · United Kingdom
“I regularly produce a letter for the CAA setting out my priorities, and I would be happy to write to my right hon. Friend in detail about the timeline, as he requests. The Bill is also about improving safety. The Government are determined that UK airspace should remain among the safest in the world.”
“Robust systems that support our national infrastructure are the bedrock of the measures contained in this Bill, from better rights for disabled passengers and modernised airspace to slot reform and quicker enforcement of passenger rights.”
“It is not the case that noise above 5,000 feet will not be considered in airspace design changes. This is about the relative balance between noise considerations and greenhouse gas emissions.”
“Questions about airport expansion will continue to be considered separately, outside the Bill process. Despite a bad day yesterday, aviation has refused to stand still for over 100 years. The industry remains at the forefront of innovation and progress, taking every challenge and every opportunity in its stride.”
“This morning I spoke to the chief executive of the National Air Traffic Services, Martin Rolfe, who informed me that this outage was due to a technical issue at their Swanwick site. While my understanding from that is that we can rule out a cyber-attack on this occasion, I do not believe this issue was unavoidable.”
“The Bill also reinstates the Government’s ability to update or create aviation safety-related criminal offences in assimilated legislation, which was lost after our exit from the EU. That will allow safety rules to keep up with international standards while ensuring that they are enforced consistently, now and in the future.”
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“I know that the Roads and Buses Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield and Rothwell (Simon Lightwood), would be happy to meet with my hon. Friend to discuss that issue in more detail. As far as we are concerned, best practice when establishing schemes such as low-traffic neighbourhoods requires consultation with bus operators about projected impacts on bus routes, bus frequencies and bus journey times.”
“If the hon. Gentleman would like to write to me with the specifics of his constituent’s travel patterns, I will look into it and come back to him. I appreciate that, for key public sector workers, the affordability of the public transport system is key.”
“We are working closely with the Welsh Government and the Welsh rail board to determine the best prioritisation of the £445 million that we made available for the Welsh rail network at the spending review. I caught up with the Welsh Transport Minister, Ken Skates, a couple of weeks ago at the refurbishment launch of Cardiff station. I will be talking to him more about this in the coming weeks and will update my hon. Friend as soon as more information is available.”
“Millions and millions of people will benefit from this Government’s rail sale, which is running this week. That is in addition to the over 1 billion journeys that will be captured by the fares freeze, which we have introduced for the first time in 30 years after relentless fare hikes under the previous Government.”
“I do agree. I am pleased to hear that progress has been made in one location, but our ambition to improve safety in and around the rail network does not stop there.”
“I would be very happy to meet my hon. Friend. How can I resist the invitation to do so when he has been contacted by the next generation about the importance of improving our rail network? I look forward to our discussion.”
“My hon. Friend has spoken to me and the Minister for Rail about Wymondham accessibility issues. I thank him for his hugely pragmatic and practical approach to working out how we can fund an affordable scheme there. I will say more about the Access for All programme in the coming weeks, and I will be sure to stay in touch with him on that particular issue.”
“The King’s Speech set out no fewer than five transport Bills. Two have already received Royal Assent, and this Railways Bill is the third. After years of spiralling rail costs yet plummeting performance, years of promises of rail reform that never saw the light of day, and years of an industry run at the altar of private profit over the public good, today we kick-start the biggest shake-up of our railways in a generation. This landmark Bill means that Britain will finally have a railway owned by the public for the public—one that puts passengers first, that seizes the opportunities of freight, that offers a better deal for taxpayers and, above all, that is greater than the sum of its parts.”
“I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. Two centuries ago, the first passenger railway services to run in the UK symbolised the hope and ambition of a confident nation, yet today that same railway symbolises something rather different. Every cancelled service, every cramped carriage and every dodgy wi-fi connection reflects not only a railway that has been beset by years of dysfunction, but a transport network, an economy and, indeed, a whole country in desperate need of renewal. It is therefore little wonder that at the last election millions of people voted for change, voting for a party that committed to bring train services back into public ownership—a service that would put passengers before profit. No one should underestimate how seriously this Government take the instruction of the British people.”
“The hon. Lady is right to say that South Western Railway had a difficult few months after it came into public ownership, but the problems that it is experiencing were inherited from the private sector operator. The number of new Arterio trains on the South Western Railway network has quadrupled since the train operating company came into public ownership, and there have been, on average, fewer cancellations in the directly operated service than there were in the privately run service.”
“We had a wonderful day in Bournemouth marking the first train operating company coming into public ownership under our new legislation. We will have a laser-like focus on building a railway that the public can be proud of and rely on.”
“I will make some progress and I will give way to the right hon. Gentleman later. The Government’s determination is to build a railway that is greater than the sum of its parts. It is not just about getting us from A to B; the railway is a route to aspiration, jobs and higher living standards right across this country. My message to passengers is simple: better times and better trains lie ahead.”
“I am looking forward to working with my hon. Friend and her colleagues in Derby, pulling together the plans for the new headquarters in a city that I know is already brimming with railway talent. We will be publishing a rolling stock and infrastructure strategy next year to give confidence and certainty to the supply chain, and we will be able to perform longer-term planning precisely because we are bringing the management of track and train together.”
“Next year the right hon. Gentleman’s constituents will have their fares frozen for the first time in 30 years. Under the last Government, fares went up by 60% between 2010 and 2024. I can only assume that he was not listening to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson).”
“We have expanded pay-as-you-go contactless ticketing in the south-east, with plans to launch further schemes in the west midlands and Greater Manchester. We are currently trialling digital pay-as-you-go in the east midlands and Yorkshire. Combined, this means that millions of journeys will benefit from a best price promise. Finally, integrated leadership teams are in place on Southeastern and coming to South Western and Greater Anglia. One person will ultimately be in charge of both the tracks and the trains in those areas. That is a step closer to better decision making on our railways, and a move away from everyone blaming everyone else when things go wrong.”
“Instead, we are led by the facts and by what our constituents are telling us, and it is beyond doubt that the current model has failed passengers time and again. While public ownership alone cannot deliver the reform we need, let us be clear that reform would be hamstrung without public ownership. We could wait for the wheels of legislation to turn before driving improvements, but I do not believe that passengers should wait any longer. That is why, last month, this Government froze rail fares for the first time in 30 years. That is an historic shot in the arm for millions of passengers, many of whom are struggling with the cost of living and could now save hundreds of pounds a year. That is not all.”
“I will make some progress. The Government have already begun the work of change. We passed the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act last November, which began the process of simplifying an industry fractured into over a dozen different bodies. Seven operators are already in public hands, with seven more to follow. We are a step closer to saving up to £150 million a year in management fees, which previously went to private companies but can now be reinvested in our services. I have said it before and I will say it again: like most of the public, I do not care who runs the railways; I just want them to work. Despite what some might claim, Labour Members are not possessed by some sort of ideological fever dream when it comes to rail.”
“Decisions about open access services, under the current model, are for the Office of Rail and Road to take. Network Rail supported the service that the right hon. Gentleman mentions, but the Office of Rail and Road took a different decision. [ Official Report , 11 December 2025; Vol. 777, c. 8WC.] (Correction) If a new proposal comes forward, I am sure that Network Rail will look at it closely. We are keen to improve connectivity wherever we can. We are bringing forward this legislation because Great British Railways needs to take the track access decisions, so that we can ensure that decisions are taken in the best interests of passengers overall.”
“My hon. Friend makes a compelling case, which has also been put to me by Mayor Tracy Brabin and the leader of Bradford council, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe. I hope to say more about improving connectivity in the north of England in the weeks and months ahead.”
“My hon. Friend is completely right to highlight that. The travelling public want their journeys to be convenient and easy, and the roll-out of pay-as-you-go and contactless ticketing removes some of the friction in the system. Through Great British Railways, we also want to simplify the ticketing structure, because we have a baffling array of millions of fares and ticket types. We need to sort that out, and we will, through this legislation, and through our ambition for the railways.”
“Tickets will be simpler, costs will be reduced, growth will be prioritised, journeys will be made more reliable, and every decision will be taken in the interests of passengers, taxpayers and freight operators. The railway will look and feel different, too. Passengers will no longer have to navigate the mind-bendingly complex system of organisations, which has been designed to benefit private companies, at the cost of decent services. We will wave goodbye to the blame factory that has come to define the industry, whether it is the armies of lawyers arguing over whose fault a delay is, or questions about whose responsibility it is to fix a broken lightbulb. Instead, we will see one railway and one team, with one mission: to deliver better public journeys.”
“I will make progress; I will give way some more in a minute. We have to be honest about the state of our railways; they are still a bit of a mess. Underlying structural problems, fragmentation and complexity remain, and passengers still pay the price. That is why this Bill matters. It will sweep away the fragmentation and dysfunction that have plagued the railway for too long, and will bring the 17 organisations involved in running the railway together into one public body—Great British Railways, which is the directing mind that this industry has long called for. GBR will co-ordinate much of the network, including track, train, and revenue and cost.”
“I am very keen to maintain the excellent standards of safety on the railways. If we do not, I will be failing in my responsibility as Secretary of State. I am aware of the recommendations that the right hon. Lady refers to. The ORR, as one regulator, provides coherence, but if she writes to me, setting out her case in more detail, I will look at the issue.”
“There are two key points in this Bill that my hon. Friend will be interested in. First, there are the provisions relating to our partnership work with mayors and mayoral strategic authorities, which will ensure that we work with our devolved partners. Secondly, there is the really beefed-up passenger watchdog, which I will come to. It might help if I say something more on that. We have a laser-like focus on improving the railways for passengers.”
“I will make some progress. For too long, the priorities of passengers and the industry have not been one and the same, and that has to change now. Alongside GBR, we will create the passenger watchdog—a strong, independent voice for the customer. It will set tough standards, independently monitor the experience of passengers, investigate persistent issues, and relentlessly push for a more accessible railway.”
“My hon. Friend raises an important point. It is often said that he or she who controls the timetable controls the railway. That is why this Bill will put power into the hands of the integrated rail body, Great British Railways, which will take decisions about the best use of the rail network.”
“The passenger watchdog will be able to look at patterns, and will have the power to compel GBR and operators to provide information to it, and it can make recommendations to the ORR for enforcement. If our constituents have been failed by passenger assistance, if their trains are always delayed, or if they experience shoddy customer service, the passenger watchdog will be their champion. I spoke briefly about devolution. Great British Railways will not be a British Rail mark 2; instead, it will be an agile organisation that embraces innovation and devolution. It will be rooted in the communities in which it operates, with local leaders finally getting a say in how their railways are run.”
“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his remarks, and for the tone in which he has made them. I put on record my thanks to Scottish Minister Fiona Hyslop and the Welsh Transport Minister, Ken Skates, for the way in which they have engaged with me and my officials during this process. I know that my colleagues across Government share that determination to do what is right for the country as a whole. I was setting out how GBR will work closely with mayors. We will reach bespoke partnership agreements to match the specific transport needs of different communities, and we will of course continue to work with the devolved Governments in Scotland and Wales, who I am pleased have lent their full support to the aims of the Bill.”
“I would be very happy to ask the rail Minister to meet my hon. Friend to have that discussion. One of the other biggest concerns of passengers is the baffling array of fares and ticketing, which is why GBR will drag the current complex system into the 21st century. A new GBR website and app will allow passengers to buy tickets, check train times and access support, all in one place. There will be no booking fees and no confusion—just simple fares that offer the best value for money.”
“I would be happy to arrange that meeting. This issue was raised with me when I visited Norwich, on the day that Greater Anglia transferred into public ownership. As my hon. Friend is aware, the delivery of East West Rail will happen in three stages. We first need to get to Cambridge; after that, I would be happy to have that discussion, but it will take a huge amount of work to get us from where we are today to seeing trains running between Oxford and Cambridge, which has to be the priority.”
“This will ensure that GBR’s decision making is fair, considered and transparent across the board. Before I finish, I draw the attention of the House to our accessibility road map, which was published alongside the Bill. My colleague Lord Hendy, the rail Minister, wrote in that publication that “for too many people…the railway remains a system of barriers. That must change.” I could not agree more. As far as I am concerned, a railway that fails to serve everyone is not fit for purpose—which is why the Bill also gives GBR and the passenger watchdog clear duties, ensuring that the needs of disabled people are at the heart of decision making.”
“We want customers to be given the best choice of services and routes; this will be a core principle of Great British Railways, so it will work with open access and freight operators to harness the best of the private sector, taking access decisions across the whole network in a way the current regulator never could. We saw the urgent need for change only last week, with the ridiculous prospect of an empty 7 am train running from Manchester to London—a decision by the regulator that has now thankfully been reversed. However, let me be clear: GBR will not be allowed to act unchecked. The Office of Rail and Road will have robust powers to hold GBR to account, and all decisions GBR makes regarding access and charging will be appealable to the ORR.”
“I do think we need to move some of the freight that we currently move by road to the railways. The Bill will require the Secretary of State to set a freight growth target, and Great British Railways will have a duty to have regard to that target when it exercises its statutory functions, so that is at the heart of this Bill. Finally, I will talk about access to the rail network. Great British Railways will be responsible for getting the best use out of the finite network capacity that we have, which is essential if we are going to improve performance, reduce disruption and allow more communities to be served by the railway.”
“The rising living standards, greater opportunity and greener economy that we promised at the last election all rely on a growing, high-performing railway, a railway that connects us to the things that matter most, connecting people to jobs, businesses to growth, families to days out, and all of us to our loved ones; a railway with public service at its core and that is frankly obsessed with the needs and wishes of passengers, and one that we can finally be proud of again. That is the railway that Britain deserves, and the one that we will deliver. I commend the Bill to the House.”
“I do agree. That needs to be a priority, and it will be at the heart of what GBR does. For too long, the railways have been a source of national parody rather than national pride—a symbol of public services not working as they should, and of life unnecessarily made harder—but 200 years after the first railways transformed the country, we have a once-in-a-generation chance to restore, renew and reimagine the potential of the industry, and to place it at the centre of the Government’s plans for national renewal.”
“The economy—indeed, the country—felt broken in the very places that mattered most. In this Budget, I am proud that we are answering the public’s call for change, and making the fair and necessary choices to repair our public finances and deliver on the nation’s priorities. We are cutting the cost of living through cheaper energy bills, frozen prescription charges and frozen rail fares. We are putting record investment into our NHS, bringing waiting lists down and creating 250 new neighbourhood health centres. We are righting a moral wrong by lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty, not just through school breakfast clubs and by lifting the minimum wage, but by scrapping the two-child universal credit cap. And we are doing all this while meeting our fiscal rules.”
“It is a shame that some of the other contributions from those on the Opposition Benches can best be described as heavy on indignation and light on contrition. You would have thought that the right hon. Members for Salisbury (John Glen) and for North East Cambridgeshire (Steve Barclay), as well as the shadow Transport Secretary, had no responsibility whatsoever for the economic inheritance that the last Government passed on to this one. We all know that the last Parliament saw living standards fall, and it is not a record to be proud of. This Government were elected on a promise of change, which was the demand of a weary public. People were fed up with rising bills and falling real wages, fed up with schools and hospitals that had been cut to the bone, and fed up with trains and buses that they could not rely on.”
“It is a privilege to respond to today’s debate on the Budget. We have heard some excellent contributions from many colleagues, particularly those on this side of the House, and I hope my hon. Friends will forgive me if I do not mention them all by name. I will respond in writing to the specific questions put to me by my hon. Friends the Members for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders), for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan) and for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury). We have also had some thoughtful and measured contributions from Opposition Members, including the hon. Member for Dorking and Horley (Chris Coghlan) and the right hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson).”
“That means extra money in people’s pockets, and it means that we will continue to keep a lid on everyday costs that drive inflation.”
“In the interests of time, I will not give way. It is because we understand what life is like for ordinary people that we have taken decisions in this Budget to provide real help with the cost of living. We know that an average household spends more than 10% of its income on getting around, getting to work and school, and making essential daily trips. That is why this Budget has not only extended the fuel duty freeze beyond the spring of next year, but restated our commitment to protect the bus fare cap. For the first time in 30 years, we are freezing rail fares. If someone has a season ticket, is a commuter on a peak return or is travelling off-peak between major cities, they will get to keep more of their hard-earned cash. It is good news for millions of passengers, some of whom will save hundreds of pounds a year.”
“That is what this Budget is about: fair choices for a fairer Britain, where the cost of living falls, real wages rise, and our towns and cities get the connectivity they deserve. This is a Budget that delivers on the public’s priorities, and I am proud to support it. Ordered, That the debate be now adjourned. —(Deirdre Costigan.) Debate to be resumed tomorrow .”
“This Government promised change, and despite the state of the economy when we entered office, we are delivering that change and doing so fairly. We promised no return to the long winters of austerity, and we meant it. An extra £120 billion in public capital investment over this Parliament will build new infrastructure and homes across the country. It will strengthen our energy security, and it will give the NHS its biggest ever capital settlement. For transport, it is a downpayment for better, more reliable journeys—trains people can rely on, buses that turn up on Sundays, roads that make driving easier and infrastructure that connects not just people with places, but the aspirations of the next generation to the opportunities of tomorrow.”
“My ambition is to make it as easy to charge up as it is to fill up, so I am pleased that the Budget confirmed a decade of 100% business rates relief for eligible EV charge points, and a review of the cost of public charging, including the impact of energy prices. Fairness remains at the heart of this Budget, and as the Chancellor rightly said, “everyone must contribute”, so electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will start paying a new electric vehicle excise duty from April 2028. Above all, that ensures that all those who use our roads and all those who depend on our roads help to maintain our roads. For years, the British people were resigned to poorer living standards, stagnant wages and public services that were not fit for purpose.”
“The truth is that most transport emissions come from our roads, which is why reducing costs for drivers while cutting emissions will be at the heart of the EV transition. The trends are already clear. EVs are often cheaper to run and maintain than more polluting cars, and consumers have noticed that, with EV sales accounting for a quarter of new car purchases in October. However, this Budget enables us to go further. By committing an extra £1.3 billion to the electric car grant, we will keep saving buyers thousands of pounds on dozens of EV models. We will increase the expensive car supplement threshold for EVs to £50,000, and invest a further £200 million in the roll-out of EV charging infrastructure.”
“Along with our commitment to extend the docklands light railway to Thamesmead, this is further proof that this Government are firmly on the side of the builders, not the blockers. Before we came into power, our roads were a symbol of national decline. Poorly maintained and riddled with potholes, they were a nuisance at best and downright dangerous at worst. That is why, by the end of this Parliament, we will commit over £2 billion annually for local road maintenance, doubling funding since coming into office. We will fill millions of potholes every year, protecting drivers from having to shell out hundreds of pounds on costly repairs. Investment and reform are my watchwords as we work to improve everyday journeys, but throughout all this we cannot be blind to the impact of transport on our climate.”
“As we set up Great British Railways, bringing together 17 different organisations into one public organisation, we will build a railway where passengers, not profits, come first. While rail may often dominate newspaper headlines, this Government will never ignore the roads that carry most of our daily journeys. That is why, earlier this year, I gave the green light to the lower Thames crossing. After years of being stuck in planning limbo under the Conservative Government, it is now set to become the largest road building project in a generation. Thanks to this Budget, we are confirming a further £891 million of public funding, after which the private sector will take forward construction and long-term operation.”
“I am not going to give way. Budgets are about choices, and I know that not everyone agrees with our decision to freeze rail fares. Indeed, just days before the Budget, I received a letter from the shadow Transport Secretary effectively proposing a 4.8% hike in fares. I considered his request, but an increase in line with the retail prices index, as the right hon. Member pretty much suggested, would have put passengers’ fares up by hundreds of pounds next year. We should not be surprised that the shadow Transport Secretary wanted passengers to pay more—after all, his party increased fares by 60% when it was in office—but Labour Members believe in cutting the cost of living and putting money back into passengers’ pockets.”
“The Department follows strong governance and planning frameworks, backed by rigorous value-for-money assessments, to make sure that upgrades are delivered effectively. That aligns with the Government’s 10-year infrastructure strategy and ensures that lessons, such as those from James Stewart’s review of High Speed 2, are applied across all projects.”
“I am keen that we look comprehensively at options for unlocking capacity that the midlands rail hub will provide. The right hon. Lady raises an important point about the Sutton Park line, and I am happy to talk to officials about whether that capacity could be unlocked as part of the scheme.”
“My right hon. Friend is completely right to highlight the importance of the structures fund. There are bridges, flyovers and tunnels across the country where the local authority with responsibility for the structure is simply unable to meet the whole cost of repairing it. I intend in the new year to set out more details about the £1 billion fund, which will enable both the repair of structures and enhancements to our local road network.”