Last week was the first Transport Oral Questions in the House of Commons of 2017. And, it was one of the dullest I’ve ever watched.
Inevitably, rail dominated the session – as it always tends to – and the coach and bus industry didn’t even get a mention, I’m sorry to report.
Despite our industry responding magnificently to a call to arms from the Department for Transport to help poor beleaguered Southern rail commuters to work on strike days, not a single word of gratitude from our ministerial team. Zilch. A ‘thank you’ might have been nice, even polite!
The performance of Pat Glass at the despatch box, one of Labour’s shadow transport spokespeople, was abysmal, bordering on the embarrassing.
Fortunately for our industry she has responsibility for rail, so at least she can’t cause us any grief. Based on this performance I suspect any meeting with her would be unremittingly dire. One does have to wonder how individuals like this get put into frontbench positions?
You would like to think that Labour frontbench spokespeople use their slot at Transport Questions to ask seriously probing questions of ministers: To put them on the spot.
So when one of the other Labour spokesmen, Daniel Zeichner, asked a question about preparedness in London for the 2mm of snow that was forecast to fall on the capital that night, you really do have to wonder what the point of it all really is. Was that the best, most probing question he could come up with?
After Transport Orals we had the usual weekly Business Statement setting out the business of the Commons for the following two weeks. I was half hoping, even expecting, to hear that we might finally get a date allocated for Commons Second Reading on the Buses Bill. But no, nothing.
No sign of Second Reading up to and including 26 January, so the earliest it can be is 30 January. Hardly the sign of a government in a rush to get this Bill on the statute book.
No rush to Second Reading, no mention of coaches or buses at Transport Orals, and now I’ve just found out that no minister will be attending the Confederation of Passenger Transport’s Annual Dinner.
It doesn’t send a very powerful signal about the level of ministerial interest in the coach and bus sectors, does it? But then, as I’ve said more than once before, ministerial interest can be a double-edged sword as it normally leads to ministerial interference, something that I would normally seek to avoid like the plague.
Still, some kind of ministerial ‘thank you’ for the coach and bus industry’s willingness to help out with the Southern rail dispute would be nice, even polite. Manners maketh the man, Messrs Grayling and Jones.
