High-Speed Rail network blueprint stops short of North-East (From The Northern Echo)

High-Speed Rail network blueprint stops short of North-East

8:00am Friday 12th March 2010 in

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THE region faces being shut out of Britain’s 250mph highspeed rail network after the Government yesterday rejected the plans as too expensive.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis announced a Y-shaped “core network”, creating twin lines from London to Manchester and to Leeds by about 2030 at a cost of £30bn.

But his long-awaited “command paper” relegated hopes of a much longer network – taking super-fast trains from Leeds to Newcastle and from Manchester to Glasgow – to what it called a “longer term aspiration”.

In the Commons, ministers twice refused to give a firm commitment to high-speed reaching the North-East.

Lord Adonis said it was important to concentrate on a “deliverable project”.

Liberal Democrat MEP Fiona Hall described the announcement as a “slap in the face”, adding: “Just as the North-East is moving ahead in creating a low-carbon economy, it will be shut out of high-speed rail – the project designed to woo people off flying.”

Simon Hanson, from the Federation of Small Businesses in the North-East, warned: “Stopping the highspeed rail line in surrounding regions will reduce the economic competitiveness of the North-East.”

Andrew Sugden, of the North-East Chamber of Commerce, said: “We need firm assurances that the North-East will be included from day one.”

Alan Clarke, chief executive of regional development agency One North East, said: “The phasing of the development of a high speed network is important and must not lead to areas of economic disadvantage.”

Last month, a consultants’ study found a high-speed line would create 95,000 jobs across the North-East and Yorkshire by 2040, doing more than perhaps any other project to narrow the North- South divide.

Lord Adonis pointed to the benefits for the region’s passengers even from the Yshaped line.

High-speed trains would switch to conventional tracks at Leeds, cutting the London - Newcastle journey time from 3hrs 9mins to 2hrs 37mins.

There would also be spare capacity for commuter and freight routes on existing lines. But the document admitted the High Speed Two (HS2) study, on which Lord Adonis’ plans are built, had urged him to back high-speed all the way to Scotland – to deliver a further economic boost of about £40bn.

That commitment would have cut the Newcastle-London journey time to two hours, with some trains stopping on Teesside, but would cost £20bn more for tracks on the West and East coasts.

Lord Adonis also put back the start date by two years until 2017, deciding construction could not start until the £16bn Crossrail link across London is completed. Before that, there must be a consultation.

Promising that the project would create 10,000 jobs, the Transport Secretary told peers: “High speed rail is a long-term strategic project to equip Britain with the transport infrastructure it needs to flourish in the 21st Century.”

The Conservatives, who unveiled their high-speed rail plans three years ago, welcomed the Government’s “change of heart” and immediately pledged to start building in 2015. But they refused to back the Government’s detailed route and are insisting on a direct link to Heathrow Airport, making that timetable highly questionable.

They will come under fierce pressure to rethink their “S-shape” single line through Manchester to Leeds, rejected by the HS2 study and condemned as “crazy” by one rail expert yesterday.

Although the “Y-shape” leaves open the possibility of high-speed extensions, the White Paper points out the time and difficulty in pushing a second, hybrid Bill, through Parliament.

Also, the HS2 study, which concluded the bigger network would deliver “substantially greater benefits” to the North-East, warned a decision must be taken alongside construction of the “Y-shape”.

A Department for Transport spokesman insisted its plans were compatible with those of HS2, saying: “We are not ruling out high-speed to other destinations, but those decisions will be taken in later years.”