Railways (Electrification) Bill

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start a programme of Electrifying Britain’s railway network according to the Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy as produced by Network Rail.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

Section 1: Electrification Works

(1) Network Rail is obliged to perform Railway Electrification under this Act as laid out in the accompanying documents deposited in the office of the Clerk of the Parliaments alongside this legislation, or any amended version thereof.

(2) Within this act, "railway" has the same meaning as in section 67(1) of the Transport and Works Act 1992.

Section 2: Amendment of Plans

(1) The Secretary of State may, by regulation using the affirmative procedure, amend the schedule of electrification works laid out in the accompanying documents deposited in the office of the Clerk of the Parliaments alongside this legislation, or any amended version thereof, unless—

(a) The works in question have already been finished.

Section 3: Additional powers for the Secretary of State

(1) The Secretary of State shall have additional powers to enable works under this act;

(a) The ability to end tuition fees levied upon certain courses with direct relevance to engineering works relevant to this Act, or other actions they deem necessary to increase the amount of qualified workers for works under this act, and

(b) The ability to intervene in negotiations between Network Rail and other bodies involved in works under this Act and relevant trade unions in relation to employment conditions, and

(c) The ability to end contracts with construction companies that are found to have acted fraudulently in regards to works laid out under this Act.

(2) Powers under subsection (1) can be exercised by regulations.

Section 4: Regulations

(1) Any power of the Secretary of State under this Act to make regulations shall be exercisable by statutory instrument.

(2) A statutory instrument containing regulations under this Act may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before, and approved by, a resolution of the House of Commons.

Section 5: Short Title, Extent and Commencement

(1) This act may be cited as the Railways (Electrification) Act 2022

(2) This act shall extend to England, Scotland and Wales.

(3) This act will come into effect immediately after receiving Royal Assent.

This bill was written by The Most Honourable Dame Inadorable LP LD DCMG DBE CT CVO MP FRS on behalf of Solidarity.

Associated Documents: Projects under this Act.

Associated map of projects, coloured by year.

Associated map of projects

Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy

Opening Speech:

Deputy Speaker, Britain needs to decarbonise its transport infrastructure. Successive governments have recognised this, but have gone about it in a messy way: one wrote a bill to electrify the Great Western Main Line and start electrifying the Midland Main Line, another passed a motion to electrify the stretch of track between Guildford and Redhill, and others still decided to set up a fund for electrification works with no plan behind it. That messy legacy ends today. Deputy Speaker, it has been over a year since Network Rail released its Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy, a plan that laid out plans for electrifying a minimum of 92% of Britain’s railway network. When I set out to write this act, I did so with the idea of putting the TDNS into law and setting out a comprehensive schedule of electrification projects running into the early 2040s. In the end, I decided to go slightly beyond the electrification goal laid out in the strategy. With 85 individual electrification projects over 19 years, this plan is certainly ambitious. £25 Billion is being spent to electrify over ten thousand kilometres of railway across Britain, predominantly in the North and the Midlands. In doing so, we will not only bring sustainable transport to all in England, we will also bring faster trains, higher capacity on our main lines and lower fares through lower cost of operating our railways. And by doing so through a proper, rolling programme of electrification we do so at an affordable price. Deputy Speaker, this truly a no-brainer, and I hope this Parliament will pass it with haste.

Amendment 1 (A01)

In Section 3(2), amend to read:

Powers under subsection (1) can be exercised by regulations in the positive procedure

Amendment 2 (A02)

In Section 3(2), amend to read:

Powers under subsection (1) can be exercised by regulations in the negative procedure

A01 and A02 were submitted by The Viscount Felixstowe.

Amendment 3 (A03)

In projects under this act, amend Norfolk and Suffolk coast to be electrified.

A03 was submitted by The Baron of Gourock.

Lords may vote Content, Not Content or Present to each amendment. This division will close on the 27th November at 10pm GMT.