New clause 8 - POWER TO IMPOSE REQUIREMENTS ON TRAFFIC AUTHORITIES AS REGARDS PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT AT LEVEL CROSSINGS
Road Safety Bill
4:00 pm
Viscount John Thurso (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland (And Transport), Scotland; Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful to the Minister for that reply, and, as ever, for the sympathy, if not total support, of the right hon. Member for East Yorkshire. To pick up on his first point, I repeat what I said when I responded to the Secretary of State's announcement following the crash in Berkshire: we must not lose sight of the fact that our railways are extremely safe. Nobody should be discouraged, but that need not stop us trying to make them safer, and I am sure that that is the spirit in which the right hon. Gentleman made his remarks. He asked why the punishment for jumping a red light on a level crossing should be greater than that for jumping any other red light. I shall not labour the point, but it could be argued that when someone is endangering an entire train and all the people on it, that is more serious than other circumstances. I fully accept that that is open to argument, and we will not go into that today.
I simply say to the Minister that I am grateful that she accepts that there is a lack of interface between the rail and traffic authorities, which is one of the problems that we all recognise. There is work to be done. She made a point, with which I concur, that if an organisation such as Network Rail feels so moved as to seek amendments, the matter is clearly troubling it and deserves to be considered. I am grateful that she did give that undertaking.
Unfortunately, new clause 5 did not find favour with the Chairman, so I was unable to describe the problems of planning contained therein, but when the Minister discusses the issues with Network Rail will she include that item as well? With that I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.
Motion and clause, by leave, withdrawn.