Central Railway

Central Railway seeks Government Backing for freight project with Hybrid Bill

Central Railway, the company proposing to build a lorries-on-trains freight rail link from Liverpool to Lille, is pressing Ministers to introduce the more traditional Hybrid Bill approach later this year to secure Parliamentary and planning approval for the project. This will enable the government to be more clear about the project.

The same procedure was used to approve the Channel Tunnel Railway Link, and the move sees Central Railway dropping plans to seek approval via the now notoriously difficult Transport and Works Act (TWA) procedures.

In a letter sent on Friday to Rt Hon John Prescott MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment Transport and the Regions, Central Railway's Chairman, Andrew Gritten says:

"Too many people have lost confidence in the public inquiry based procedure for major projects envisaged by the TWA. Therefore it is not tenable for us to propose to use it, because it is unmanageable for everybody. With the backing of a Hybrid Bill, the project can be properly considered and Central Railway can move forward to implement its lorries-on-trains railway project between Britain and France, thereby contributing to a solution to road congestion, without recourse to public funds."

"The time is right for Central Railway. There are no short term fixes. Roads are simply not the best way to get lorries from most parts of the UK to the Continent - especially as there isn't a road across the Channel."

"Central Railway holds out the prospect of reduced congestion and increased economic activity. All the evidence is that the public wants more use to be made of rail freight, and our plans are a real response to those demands."

"Central Railway offers a real opportunity for Ministers to transform our transport system at no cost to the taxpayer."

Central Railway is proposing to design, build and operate a new lorries-on-trains rail link connecting the North West to northern France. The line will run from Liverpool, via Manchester, Sheffield, the Midlands and London, through the Channel Tunnel to the Lille area in Northern France. Most of the route will be existing or disused railways. A small part of the route will be new railway running alongside the M25 in Surrey to bypass overloaded existing lines.

The railway will create a unique link into Europe as the only British railway able to carry lorries, and standard European freight trains (as well as any UK passenger or freight train). The project cost is estimated at approximately £5.5 billion and Central Railway is projected to produce a commercial rate of return enabling it to be built with private money.

Railways have traditionally been authorised by Acts of Parliament. The Transport & Works Act, 1992 was introduced to relieve Parliament of the burden of dealing with Private Bills for transport projects. The TWA in effect replaced the Committee stage of a Bill with a public inquiry and gave the Secretary of State the power to confirm a Ministerial Order approving a railway. It has worked well for many local schemes but its procedures are too long, complicated and expensive for schemes of national significance such as Central Railway. A Hybrid Bill, a public bill which affects particular private interests, is preferable. Relevant examples include the Channel Tunnel Bills in the 1970s and 1980s and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Bill in 1995.
Democratic process

Anyone whose interests are affected can petition against the Bill. At the Committee stage the promoter can agree, or be obliged, to modify the scheme to accommodate objections.

The power of the Secretary of State to approve TWA Orders is what creates his "quasi-judicial" role. It means that Ministers cannot comment on any possible future Order application without potentially prejudicing the process and therefore cannot support projects. Large projects, under the TWA, have a "Parliamentary" stage in which the Order application is voted on after a short debate. The significance of this vote in the overall process is increasingly unclear because the subsequent inquiry is still entirely open ended.

The High Court has ruled that the Secretary of State's powers to determine planning applications in which he has to apply his own policy are incompatible with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This includes Transport & Works Act applications. Judges held that in many cases the current planning system denies developers the right to an independent and impartial tribunal under the Human Rights Act 1998. The Government is expected to appeal the decision in the House of Lords, but the issue currently adds further to uncertainty.

Current planning processes for major projects have also been criticised in a separate DTI Foresight report, where they are described as characterised by "significant costs, high risk, delays, antagonism and indecision."