High-speed rail link needed now
Feb 21 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
THE man responsible for Britain’s railways is to launch a study into the possibility of high-speed trains passing through the North East, as experts warn the rail system is at risk of stagnating.
Network Rail boss Iain Coucher wants the Government to drop its reluctance to expand a high-speed route north and is ready to commission research into two new lines.
Yet despite an ever-increasing number of experts telling the Government it has to act now, transport planners have refused to invest in the next generation of rail travel.
And the Department of Transport has been told it must drop its reluctance to expanding the UK’s only high-speed line, the Eurostar route.
Mr Coucher’s proposals for High Speed 2 and 3 would see trains travelling from London to Scotland up both sides of the country.
The 200mph trains network would cost more than £50bn to complete and could be operational by 2020.
Mr Coucher has previously warned MPs that the current train network is about to reach maximum capacity and needs serious levels of investment to continue efficiently past 2015.
He is now urging Government transport planners to start the lengthy process of building a new railway. Mr Coucher said: “Not just High Speed 2, but High Speed 3, maybe even High Speed 4, that’s where we need to be by 2020. There is demand building up today.
“We’ll now sit down, working with the train-operating companies, to come up with ideas about where we think it should go and what it should look like.”
Mr Coucher told MPs it was important they start planning as soon as possible.
His plans will bring him into conflict with the Department of Transport which has refused to start detailed considerations for a new rail network until 2012 at the earliest.
The Network Rail study comes as the House of Commons transport select committee heard evidence from rail experts criticising the Government for failing to match European train standards.
Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, yesterday told the committee: “This was a golden opportunity that has been missed again by the Government. Our European counterparts recognise the benefits of such a line. You only have to look to Spain where they spent £15bn on a new high-speed line to see what we should be doing.”
Also giving evidence was Peter Rayner, an expert on railway operations and safety, who dismissed the Government’s transport strategy and warned the system was at risk of stagnating. He said: “I don’t think this is a paper that helps the railway at all, this is a paper that aims to preserve the status quo.”
Tyne Bridge MP David Clelland, who sits on the committee, said a change in the Government’s stance could be on the way.
He said: “I don’t think they are now dismissing the idea out of hand.
“It’s obviously not at the top of their agenda, and I certainly think they could be a lot more enthusiastic about this, but there is a Green Paper on the way and hopefully Government ministers are slowly coming round to this.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said the issue of High Speed would be looked at again when the Government begins to prepare its next long-term strategy by 2012.
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