Orders of the Day — Channel Tunnel Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 5 Rhagfyr 1973.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr Roger Moate Mr Roger Moate , Faversham 12:00, 5 Rhagfyr 1973

I agree with the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Mr. Ogden) when he says that there will be a Channel Tunnel Act, but I do not think I agree when he says so positively that there will be a Channel tunnel. Whatever happens to this Bill, I feel that the project has a touch of doom about it and that in 170 years' time the House of Commons may be looking back at the efforts of the 1970s and 1980s, finding perhaps a slightly larger hole than the Victorians left.

On the Second Reading of the Channel Tunnel (Initial Finance) Bill, my right hon. Friend said that if no one would clear up the mess if the project did not come to fruition he would be prepared to go down with his dustpan and brush and clear it up himself. He should keep his dustpan and brush handy, because I have a feeling that we have not heard the end of this question for a long time to come.

I agree also with the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby that this is very much an issue of "this Bill and this tunnel or no Bill and no tunnel". That is a matter of regret, because many of us who go along a great deal with the principle of a Channel tunnel link feel that there are alternatives that should be more exhaustively examined. To this extent, I go a great deal of the way with the amendment moved by the Liberal Party. Whatever tunnel we eventually dig under the Channel—if we dig one—one thing obvious tonight is that the position of the Liberal Party's spokesman on transport affairs has been undermined considerably. Indeed, the whole foundations of the Liberal Party seem to have been so damaged that they have disappeared from sight altogether. But if the Liberals put down an amendment which is effectively the basis of a large part of a debate, they might have the courtesy to stay and listen to the arguments about it.

I support some of the arguments put forward in favour of the railway-only tunnel. Reference has been made to the projection of costs put forward by the Channel Tunnel Company and published in a pamphlet issued by the Conservation Society. My right hon. Friend said that it was unlikely that a railway-only tunnel would be profitable for the first 10 years. That statement is slightly at variance with the published figures, and I should appreciate his elaboration of this.

The figures deserve far more study than has been given to them. They show that it would cost 30 per cent. less to build the railway-only tunnel—£584 million against £846 million. It shows that in the first year the operating costs of the railway-only tunnel would be £3 million, compared with operating costs for the Government's projected tunnel of £17 million. Ten years later the operating costs would be £5 million for the railway-only tunnel, compared with £34 million. The operating costs largely reflect the cost of the energy consumed, so those figures are even more striking bearing in mind our present anxiety about energy supplies.

The pamphlet shows also that in 1981, after paying all debt service and operating costs, the net receipts—or the profits—should be £500,000, rising to £20 million in 1985 and £50 million in 1990. Those figures show that the project is viable and profitable after servicing all the capital.

We must consider the railway-only tunnel in the context of the railway system, and I welcome the recent and enlightened statement made by my right hon. Friend that the Government are prepared to spend considerable sums of money on subsidising our railway system as far ahead as we can see. A railway-only tunnel would contribute a net profit to the railway system and the Government owe it to us to give far greater consideration to this idea.

The trouble is that the railway-only tunnel has come to the House of Commons far too late for consideration. We have been presented with a fait accompli in terms of the project itself. Those of us who are putting forward alternatives are probably wasting our time. Many worthy bodies and organisations throughout the country have put forward ideas for a railway-only tunnel, bridges, and so on, but there is no prospect of persuading the Government to look again at the principles of the project. It is this tunnel or no tunnel. They have no room for manœuvre and they cannot at this stage say that they will cut out the rolling motorway concept. We have signed a treaty agreeing to go ahead with it. It would be hard for the Government to go back over the ground they have already covered in conjunction with the commercial interests and the French. My right hon. Friend said: … it is difficult if not impossible to go on re-examining projects of this kind. In this case, it has taken many years of preparation to get it to the stage that it has now reached. It has also cost a great deal of money. To go back over that ground again, to spend money on similar researches, would be to indulge in that habit which seems to have grown up in this country of longing to pore over projects, to look at them again, and somehow or other to dredge up some excuse by which we might avoid any decision."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 12th November 1973; Vol. 864, c. 190.] I understand that point of view, and there is a strong practical argument for it, but it implies that it is a waste of time and money to put forward alternative schemes.