| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
27 Jun 2007 : Column 103WH—continued
That is the social and regeneration case. I turn to the transport case, which is particularly important when discussing phase 2. Only when phase 2 is completed and the whole line is built will London have an orbital route—an outer circle that transport engineers have been discussing for the past 30-odd years. The orbital network will make it possible for the first time to travel across and around London without going through the centre. It will help not only Londoners but commuters and through-London travellers who want to avoid the centre. For instance, they will be able to get off a Southampton train at Clapham Junction, go around the orbital and catch a Hastings train from Peckham, catch a Glasgow train at Watford or go to Finsbury Park to catch a train on the east coast main line, if my geography is right. They will be able to do all that without needing to go through the centre, alight in a
congested terminus, get on the congested Circle line and fight their way through the crowds.
Another important point is that the completion of phase 2 and the East London line will have a very good effect on the rest of the transport system. It is projected that 6 million people will shift from buses, cars, the tube and other rail services on to the line, and another 2 million new trips will be made that were not possible or feasible before. Because it will take pressure off Victoria and London Bridge by re-routing lines around them, if it is delivered before Thameslink works at London Bridge commence, it could significantly reduce the disruption to rail services during the construction, making it particularly attractive to TfL.
ELLX2—I have not referred to it that way before, but it is easier than saying “the East London line extension, phase 2” every time—will carry 8.7 million passengers, and the East London line as a whole will carry 48 million. It will lead to 400,000 fewer car journeys annually and 470 fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, as well as cutting journey times for millions of Londoners.
I shall come to the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney, South and Shoreditch about value for money. We must remember that it is costing £500 million just to renovate one tube station, Victoria, to take more passengers. How much better value for money would it be to let people get off the train before Victoria and go much more directly to where they want to go, at a fraction of the cost? Much more could be achieved within relatively low cost margins in transport project terms. All that is required for ELLX2 is a small amount of new track between Surrey Quays and the proposed Surrey Canal Road station, some improvement to existing railway lines and an increase in train frequency. ELLX2 is a quick win with huge dividends for London transport. For those who want the technical argument, the benefit to cost ratio is 1.7:1.
As though that were not enough, an important population argument can be made. London’s population is predicted to increase by 800,000 by 2016. That will be the highest growth rate that London has experienced since the Victorian era, and I need hardly say that the Victorians knew what to do about increasing population. They built the underground system, the trains and railway termini and our sewer system; they built infrastructure at a fantastic rate. If we are now to experience the same level of population growth, it stands to reason that we should be carrying out major infrastructure projects, and ELLX2 is the cheapest, the quickest and the best.
The East London Line Group calculates that the population in the four south London boroughs through which ELLX2 will pass can be expected to grow by some 116,000 between now and 2016. That is more than the entire population of Cambridge, or indeed of Lincoln, I say to my hon. Friend the Minister, in just four boroughs. It is important to accommodate that growth—20,000 more people in Wandsworth, 25,000 in Lewisham, 30,000 in Lambeth and 40,000 in Southwark.
I look forward to hearing from my hon. Friends representing north London constituencies. I am sorry that my immediate neighbours cannot be here. Hon. Members will understand. The south London branch of ELLX2 will run through the constituencies of my
right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Tessa Jowell), both of whom are unable to speak as members of the Cabinet—
Martin Linton: They are at the moment. They are probably sitting behind their telephones. They are precluded from joining debates such as this, but I know that they have strong views on the issue. The hon. Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) is here as well, so we have another south Londoner to join the debate, but I am sure that colleagues will understand why they are not all here. It does not understate the scheme’s importance.
I shall start with Clapham Junction. It is the busiest railway station in the country—indeed, probably in Europe—and it is an anomaly bordering on injustice that it has never been put on the tube line. We have waited 100 years for Clapham Junction to be put on the tube line; people have been campaigning to connect it for at least that long.
Meg Hillier: Does my hon. Friend agree that another good reason to put Clapham Junction on the tube line is that, thanks to Transport for London and the Mayor, children can travel free on the tube but must pay at least £1 to travel just one station from Clapham Junction?
Martin Linton: My hon. Friend hits the point exactly. Since the London Underground has been part of TfL, it has been part of a London system that not only includes cheap and free fares for young people but has been reclaimed for Londoners. The railway system is still struggling to come to terms with its role as a means of transport for Londoners around London. I applaud the Department for Transport for devolving more power to TfL, and I regard the launch of the London overground as a big step forward in making London’s railways work for Londoners.
There are 1,300 people in the Clapham Junction area who work at Canary Wharf. It is one of the biggest local employers, even though it is on the other side of London. A huge regeneration area in north Battersea will benefit from a Clapham Junction-Docklands link.
As a railway station, Clapham Junction is already bursting at the seams, and passenger growth at the station is expected to be 30 per cent. higher in the next 10 years. The new route will offer an opportunity to serve the huge population of 12,000 in north Battersea who are remote from stations because of the 1.8 mile gap between Clapham Junction and the next station. I shall certainly work—with Wandsworth council, I hope—to make a business case for a station between those two. The Mayor has already promised to prepare a business case for a station at Brixton, where there is a gap of 1.9 miles between stations. The populations of Battersea and Brixton live in precisely the kind of areas that would benefit from a regeneration express; given
the role of the extension in promoting regeneration, it is difficult to see how they could be left out and not get stations.
I shall say a word about Denmark Hill and Queen’s Road Peckham stations, which are in the constituencies of my right hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood and my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Camberwell and Peckham, who are unable to take part in this debate. They have an equally strong case for a link between their very deprived communities, docklands and the City. Their constituencies have high proportions of ethnic minorities and are among the most deprived communities in south London.
The hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) has said that the East London line has the greatest potential for regeneration at the least possible cost, and he is right. Some 125,000 additional jobs would be within 16 minutes’ travelling time of Peckham, for instance. The same applies to Surrey Canal Road, a new station in Deptford—right next to Millwall football ground, and that will no doubt have advantages. The station will be in a regeneration area, for which tens of thousands of new homes and jobs are planned.
In conclusion, the Clapham Junction link—or, as we refer to it in my part of the world, ELLX2—is vital for the whole of south London. It is a quick-win transport project that delivers economic growth, accommodates population growth and adds much-needed access to Canary Wharf and the huge number of jobs being developed in east London. The East London Line Group, a consortium of London boroughs led by Archie Galloway of the City of London, has been campaigning for the East London line and continues to campaign for ELLX2. It has made what I consider a reasonable request: that the Government should end the inevitable uncertainty of the past few years and give the second phase of the East London line project the approval that it needs as a part of the comprehensive spending review.
2.52 pm
Meg Hillier (Hackney, South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op): It gives me great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Gale. I have to take issue with one point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Martin Linton); he undermines his case by suggesting that anyone might want to travel on the East London line to see Millwall play—people might think that that is an argument for not having it. My constituents are happy to see Arsenal and West Ham.
Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con): Did the hon. Member for Battersea (Martin Linton) not make an excellent case? A lot of people probably try to get away from the area when Millwall are playing.
Meg Hillier:
That is a fair point. Those people are welcome at Arsenal or West Ham—or, indeed, in Hackney. I shall canter through some of the reasons why people may wish to travel to my constituency of Hackney, South and Shoreditch, on the East London line. However, it is worth remembering that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea has said, Hackney has long suffered as the inner London borough north
of the river without tube connections. I should say that although one of our postcodes is N1, in Hackney we consider ourselves to be emphatically in the east end of London.
We have not had a tube station. If we look at a map of London and mark the tube stations, there will be a blank spot in the shape of the borough of Hackney. I think that we can claim the one staircase at Old Street station, in Shoreditch in the south of my constituency; the rest belongs to the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn).
Jeremy Corbyn: There are two staircases at Manor House.
Meg Hillier: There may be two staircases at Manor House, which is in the constituency of Tottenham.
We in Hackney have not had a tube. We have battled a long time for the East London line; we have taken on the great and the good, including the Prince of Wales, who was keen for Bishopsgate goods yard to be listed. I am a veteran; I have the scars of those campaigns on my back. One of my constituents told me, “Ever since I have been in Hackney, the East London line has been about four years away.” Well, for that constituent and the rest of us, it is now less than four years away—in June 2010, we will have the East London line in Hackney. It is almost unbelievable, and a fantastic achievement.
Of course, the line will be part of the new London overground system, thanks partly to our colleagues at the Department for Transport, who gave the powers to the Mayor; it will be run by Transport for London so that it is genuinely part of London’s transport network. In London, we have long suffered from the difficulties of having disjointed rail services that are not part of the system. We still have battles over the use of the Oyster card; that affects many of my constituents, who travel on overland railway lines, including the North London line. It is important that that comprehensive overview and comprehensive running by one organisation should continue.
I have said for a long time and still believe that the biggest single triumph since the formation of the London government—the Greater London authority, of which I was a member from 2000 to 2004—is the existence of Transport for London. We have seen the results of giving power, through the Mayor and Transport for London, to Londoners so that we can determine our own transport future. I shall mention those results; I am sure that the Minister is well aware of them.
Phase 1 of the East London line brings us a new station at Dalston Junction, close to the North London line station of Dalston Kingsland, and links that to Haggerston, Hoxton and Shoreditch, slicing through the western part of my constituency. That is an important link to south of the river. However, it only goes so far; we also look forward to seeing the second phase of the extension so that my constituents can travel backwards and forwards and avail themselves of the facilities and jobs in other parts of London—just as, hopefully, people will travel to Hackney as well. We also need to recognise the Treasury’s role. We are always asking it for things, but it is worth thanking it for its confidence in Transport for London.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea said, that bit of phase 1 is not the only one that we are going to see. By February 2011, there will be a link from Dalston in my constituency to Highbury and Islington, which is on the cusp of the constituencies of my hon. Friends the Members for Islington, North and for Islington, South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry). For my constituents, that will be a vital link to the Victoria line, which they currently access mainly by the North London line, which runs west to east across my constituency.
Tribute has been paid to a number of the people who have so far delivered successfully on phase 1 of the East London line extensions. In the past, I chaired a transport working group to improve the facilities at Finsbury Park interchange. I have seen and battled first hand with the many difficulties of delivering decent transport projects. I say to my hon. Friend the Minister that that was a model of some of the difficulties that we face, although in the end there was a good result, as my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North, who represents the area, knows.
We have seen great discipline in the East London line and the East London Line Group, which is led by Archie Galloway of the City of London. All of us involved never asked for more than we felt was the minimum needed to get the line on track. Although many of us would like all-singing, all-dancing stations and other extensions around the tracks and the immediate stations, we have been cautious and united in asking only for what we actually need.
We can sort out the other things in other ways; the Department for Transport has put in money for a concrete platform that is being built at Dalston station, and that will help fund other things. However, we have not asked for many extra things such as extensions to platforms, although in some places we need them. We have been very disciplined.
I pay particular tribute to Ian Brown, who has taken up that baton from the East London Line Group. He is an officer of Transport for London and has shown that transport projects in London can be delivered on time and on budget. My hon. Friends, others and I have battled for many years, as did people before us, to get the extensions. It is thanks to Ian—his determination and “can do” approach—that the project was delivered. The political framework was there, through the Mayor and the Government, but he should be applauded in this place for his work.
The East London line—the extension that we know is coming and the one that we hope is coming—will do a great deal for my constituency. The Olympics will take place partly in Hackney, South and Shoreditch and that gives us an opportunity to boost tourism and visitors. My hon. Friend the Member for Battersea mentioned Battersea arts centre, that small venue south of the river—
Martin Linton: Will my hon. Friend not show the same generosity of spirit as her neighbour, our hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn), by conceding that Battersea arts centre is one of London’s premier arts centres?
Meg Hillier:
I am sure that my hon. Friend will forgive me when I say that I believe Hackney to be the
centre of the universe. It is, of course, the home of the Hackney Empire, one of the great Frank Matcham theatres, which was recently renovated and which provides one of the best and most diverse programmes among London theatres. It attracts diverse audiences that include many people from the local area who—often for cost reasons—cannot access a west end theatre.
It is home also to Ocean, which is currently darkened, but which we hope will reopen as a major London music venue. I remember talking to Hackney’s cabinet member for regeneration, a certain councillor Guy Nicholson, who was in Tottenham Court road one day and who heard a young couple who were keen to go and experience the facilities at Ocean, which were then open. They asked the man at the tube station how to get to Hackney, and he said, “Well, you hop on here, you get to Bethnal Green, and then I think you get a bus, but I can’t tell you which one.” At that point, the couple looked at each other and decided that it was too much hassle and that they would not bother.
Martin Linton: Does my hon. Friend not look forward, like me, to the day when we will be able to go to the Hackney Empire, get on a London overground at Hackney, Hoxton or—what is the other one called?
Martin Linton: It sounds like something out of—
Jeremy Corbyn: Eliza Doolittle.
Martin Linton: Indeed. “In ‘ackney, ‘aggerston and ‘oxton, underground ‘ardly ‘appens.” As I was saying, people would be able to get on an overground train and go right round to Clapham Junction and see something at Battersea arts centre.
Meg Hillier: My hon. Friend is clearly determined that he and I launch a joint tourism battle for visitors to the London Olympics. My point, however—I think that he would say the same of his constituency—is that whether we like it or not the tube map is the way in which many people find their way around London, because of its simple approach. I happen to be chair of the newly formed all-party parliamentary group on urban walking, so I am aware that there are 40 pairs of stations in London between which it is quicker to walk than to travel by public transport. Nevertheless, first-time visitors to London and Londoners outside their own area do not always necessarily know how to get to places. I look forward to the time when people know that they will not wait longer to hop on a train than would be the case with a tube. The trains will be timetabled, but the waiting times will be akin to tube waiting times.
As well as the venues that I have mentioned, people can visit Sutton house, which just last weekend celebrated its 500th anniversary. It is a National Trust property and a real jewel in Hackney’s crown.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |