Clause 13 - Extent
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
11:00 am
Mrs Anne McIntosh (Vale of York, Conservative)
Subsection (1) states:
''This Part extends to the whole of the United Kingdom.''
Subsection (2) states:
''In the application of this Part in relation to Scotland any reference to a tramway shall be disregarded.''
That raises two questions. First, I envisage a situation in which the clause would be dropped, especially in relation to cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow that were sufficiently large to carry a tramway and used to have trams, and bearing in mind that the Government's adviser on integrated transport, Mr. Begg, comes from the Scottish capital. I do not know how the Government would deal with a Scottish city that wanted to apply to have a tramway.
Secondly, we had an interesting but bemusing discussion with the Under-Secretary, to which I shall return as soon as possible in the time left to us. I am still hesitant about the difference between a tram and a trolley bus. I would have accepted the Under-Secretary's explanation readily had he said simply that trolley buses do not exist in the United Kingdom. Such a factual statement would be acceptable. However, if trolley buses do exist in this country and are involved in a serious accident or incident that falls under the provisions of the Bill, they will be investigated by the police, which I take to be the British Transport police.
I therefore believe that a number of issues are at fault in part 1, which cannot now be amended. There are several uncertainties, such as what constitutes a trolley bus—do they exist in this country?—what constitutes a tram, and whether Scotland is to have a tramway. It is regrettable that it is not clear who the investigating authority will be for trolley buses.