My oh my – it looks like being Y (From The Northern Echo)

My oh my – it looks like being Y

12:02pm Thursday 24th December 2009 in

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SO Westminster is sleepy, MPs are in their constituencies or the Caribbean and nothing more will happen until the new year? Well, not quite.

Before the old year dies, there is one more crucial report to be completed and handed in, one that could determine the future of rail travel to and from the North for many a decade.

When Sir David Rowlands, the man investigating high-speed rail, said his study would be on the Transport Secretary’s desk “by the end of the year” he wasn’t kidding – because he still hasn’t finished it.

Instead, it seems Lord Adonis will finally get his mitts on the document as late as New Year’s Eve, perhaps to read as he toasts 2010 with a mulled wine.

More important, it now appears that Sir David will make recommendations that will shatter the idea that there is a Labour-Tory consensus on high-speed trains.

Indeed, his report could leave the Conservatives – who stole a march by promising the 225mph rail revolution first – scrambling to catch up if they want to appeal to voters in this region.

Sir David told me several months ago that his report would suggest three options, leaving open the key question of which – if any – he would recommend.

Would it be an S-shaped line through Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds and Newcastle, a Y-shaped route with twin west and east lines north of Birmingham, or a single line to Scotland, with spurs to all the big north cities?

Now it appears Sir David will plump firmly for the middle option – the Y-shape – because of protests in Yorkshire over the idea of every high-speed train from London going through Manchester first.

This would leave the Tories facing difficult questions about their commitment to a single S-shape route because their trains would take longer to reach Yorkshire and, eventually, the North-East.

David Cameron’s party might be wise to accept that the Rowlands report will be a far more detailed investigation than their own and, essentially, a non-political one.

If it all comes true, passengers from Newcastle can expect journey times to London to be slashed to one hour 50 minutes, albeit not until the late 2020s.

However, the report will disappoint campaigners – including The Northern Way group – who have argued that a high-speed line across to Manchester and Liverpool is as important as a route to London.

Sir David appears to have concluded that the scandal of trans-Pennine trains – it takes almost an hour to crawl the 40 miles from Leeds to Manchester – can be tackled through a “normal” upgrade without highspeed.

We will find out for sure when Lord Adonis publishes the study – and his own conclusions – in March. Then there is the small matter of busted Britain finding the tens of billions required… THE end of the year means the end of Richmond MP William Hague’s lucrative place on the after-dinner speaking circuit – trousering up to £25,000 a night.

David Cameron ordered his frontbenchers to abandon their “outside interests” by the New Year to show voters they were committed to the battle ahead.

Jeremy Lee, the boss of a London-based agency, said of Mr Hague: “It’s the end of an era. He is the best speaker on the circuit.”