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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Baker quizzes Hoon on rail fares
March 15, 2009 12:21 PM
• Norman Baker (Lewes, Liberal Democrat): OVER the next five years to 2014, the money raised towards fares by passengers will increase from £23 billion to £39 billion, . .
. . according to the Transport Committee, while the Government's contribution will be significantly cut. Given that our rail fares are already the highest in Europe, and given the swingeing increases this year, how can the Secretary of State possibly justify that massive increase in the take from passengers, and why did he not freeze rail fares this year, as the Liberal Democrats advocated? We indicated how we would pay for that, too.
• Geoff Hoon (Secretary of State, Department for Transport; Ashfield, Labour): I have been doing a little research into what the Liberal Democrats advocate, and it is interesting that despite the hon. Gentleman's clear personal commitment to transport, he is unable to persuade any of his colleagues to support him. The Liberal Democrats would cut £1 billion from the transport budget, in the highly unlikely event of them being elected to take responsibility for anything. We need to put anything that the hon. Gentleman says about transport in context: he has not even been able to persuade his own colleagues that transport is a good thing.
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