This week the Secretary of State for Transport announced a new four year contract for train services in the Greater Western area to be provided by First Greater Western Limited (FGW). As your local MP, and Rail Minister I thought it would be helpful to provide some more information on this Direct Award.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working as the Rail Minister since I took the job last summer and I am very proud of this Government’s record on our railways. Rail travel has been put at the heart of the Conservatives’ long term economic plan to secure our country’s future and the largest upgrade of our rail network since Victorian times is underway. There is a record level of investment going into our railways.

But as the Rail Minister I have not been allowed to be involved in decisions about this Direct Award because I am also a local MP, representing a Constituency in the Franchise area. Proprietary rules are strict to ensure any conflict of interests are avoided. The decisions for this award were therefore made by the Secretary of State. This did not stop me from lobbying vigorously as a local MP for improvements in our services, and we have secured some good results in this award. However, there is a possible operational change for passengers using Bedwyn station as a result of investment decisions taken several years ago. As the local MP I am determined to make sure these changes do not happen.

For Pewsey travellers, there are no planned changes to the current service pattern and from 2018 we are likely to see more services and hopefully new bi-modal brand new Hitachi trains replacing the 40 year old High Speed Trains, offering many more seats and a much better service. A decision on this new fleet is due at the end of June.

For Bedwyn passengers, however, the Direct Award did not solve the problems arising from previous decisions about track electrification which could result in the replacement of some direct London services with a shuttle service to Newbury.

This situation has arisen because under a previous government the decision had been made to terminate electrification at Newbury, when the investment decisions for this project were made several years ago. This makes no operational sense as Bedwyn is a natural terminus and before becoming a Minister I persuaded the DfT to analyse the business case for electrification to Bedwyn which was very positive - far more so than for other locations in the electrification plan. With this analysis it makes even less sense to stop at Newbury rather than carry on to Bedwyn as part of the same project.

However, since the funding allocation and scheduling for the Great Western electrification project is in the hands of Network Rail not FGW, this Direct Award had no impact on the ongoing discussions to get Bedwyn extension scheduled. I have written as the local MP to Mark Carne, head of Network Rail to urge him to confirm the extension to Bedwyn when the latest update on Great Western electrification is published this summer.

The Direct Award did highlight another possible solution which is to use battery powered trains, the newest train technology in the country to serve Bedwyn. These units are already being trialled for services in the East of England and they allow fast services to run both on electrified and non-electrified track - meaning that our through services to and from London could be preserved. There is more information about the technology here http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/battery-powered-train-enters-service/1019711.article.

As FGW set out in the Direct Award, plans for a trial of this technology to serve the Bedwyn route are already underway and I have asked for the trials and negotiations to be accelerated as quickly as possible.

If I am re-elected, please be assured that this will continue to be a key priority for me as our direct, frequent train links are an economic lifeline to the area in which we live. I am determined that our services are not downgraded and to see off these proposed service changes.

CLAIRE PERRY,

MP for the Devizes Constituency.