North East high-speed rail link pledge

Dec 6 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

THE prospect of a high-speed rail link to the North East took a major step forward last night when a senior Government minister promised to meet train bosses and prepare a detailed business case.

Minister for the North East Nick Brown will work with the head of National Express East Coast to estimate the cost of a route from London to Newcastle.

The journey could be cut to just 90 minutes, says Susan Goldsmith, National Express East Coast managing director.

Mr Brown has previously ruled out support for the link, but as the Conservatives appeared to gain popularity by backing limited high-speed rail, the Newcastle East and Wallsend MP admitted the “world and the debate about this line has moved on”.

Mr Brown, who is also Chief Whip, said: “I do not want us to miss what could be a very important aspect of the rail debate for us. I will talk to Susan Goldsmith first, then take that to regional agencies.

“We have to know what we can reasonably ask for, because I can’t go to the Department of Transport with a generalised wish list and a £1bn price tag.”

The support came after transport experts warned of severe capacity problems on the East Coast Main Line as soon as 2011, and rail gridlock by 2020.

Politicians from Labour, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats were yesterday at the North East Economic Forum’s annual conference, where they competed to outdo each other’s transport ambitions. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson told delegates his party, and not the Tories, was the region’s best hope of getting the “vital” rail links.

The former Hartlepool MP, speaking via satellite link, described Tory plans for a new line only to Leeds as not good enough.

He said: “David Cameron needs to know that there’s a northern region which is just as much part of the UK economy as the rest of the country and it expects the same sort of infrastructure support and links to the rest of the country and on to Europe.”

At the conference, Ms Goldsmith revealed ambitions to connect any eventual northern high-speed railway with a new line linking London to Seville in Spain, set to open in 2012. In theory, this would allow a direct journey between Newcastle and Seville in under 12 hours.

In his speech at the Gosforth Marriott hotel yesterday, shadow chancellor George Osborne threw his weight behind the new line.

“Do not listen to any rubbish about us ending the line at Leeds. You build railways in stages and our second stage would extend the line to Newcastle and on to Scotland,” Mr Osborne said.

A Conservative link to Newcastle might never cross the Tyne, with planners saving on the cost of building a new rail bridge across the river by locating the station in Team Valley, according to some speculation.

Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon told The Journal earlier this week he favours so-called parkway rail stations outside the big cities and intended to be the main focal point for national train services in their region.

Newcastle Council leader John Shipley said the region must now do groundwork for a link to Scotland.

Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable reaffirmed his party’s commitment to high-speed rail yesterday, calling for investment to provide jobs in the recession.

In a bleak 2009, North may fare better than most

THE region has been warned to prepare for a very difficult 2009 as the economic downturn spreads from London to the North East.

Many business leaders had believed they could avoid the worst of a recession next year, but at yesterday’s conference they were told to expect worse to come.

One expert said the region would not be able to ignore the fact “the world is set to enter the deepest global recession since the Great Depression”.

Lindsay Thomas, a former Financial Services Authority director, said: “It will be the deepest, the most unremitting, the most global in 60 years.”

Later, delegates were told by Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne the Government had let them down.

He said: “I’m afraid the North East will be hit, thanks to Labour’s handling of the economy. Like every other part of the country, the North East finds itself after 11 years of economic boom badly prepared for the bust. The first effect of this recession has been in financial services, so London was hit most, but there are these services in Leeds and Newcastle, and we will wait and see what long-term impact this has.

“And I think people are now realising that those bewildering scenes they saw on their TV a while back, of bankers made redundant in London, are now starting to have an impact on high streets and factories in the North East as well.

“All the businesses in the North East are feeling this impact and there is now a real fear of unemployment.”

His assessment came after Mr Thomas warned of a difficult 2009. Mr Thomas said the Government’s current spending plans would have a hefty bill attached.

“The cost of paying for this help will see in five to 10 years’ time all Government public sector spending scaled back as they try to balance the books.”

In a more optimistic speech, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable agreed with the spending forecast, but said there was still a chance the region could avoid the worst of the downturn. “Although the Government is talking about bringing forward investment for infrastructure and housing, when you look at the detail what they are actually planning is a very deep cut in public investment over the next three or four years, and that would be absolute disaster for the economy as a whole and particularly for the North East.

“While it is important there is some short-term public investment, we have to think ahead to the big long-term projects.

“Projects such as A1 dualling must not be pushed back into the queue because of this.

“There is a bleak period ahead, but I think the North East will not be as badly hit as others.”

Minister for the North East Nick Brown made a scathing attack on the shadow chancellor. He said the Tory solution was mass unemployment.

“I don’t think George Osborne gives a monkey’s about the North East of England; I don’t think he cares at all.”

Andrew Hebden:

IF the model of the new Tyne Tunnel crossing in the foyer outside the main conference hall was intended to focus the minds of delegates heading to yesterday’s North East Economic Forum, it certainly worked.

Not for the first time on the occasion of a debate about the region’s future, transport issues came to dominate much of the day, with the current economic crisis as an omnipresent backdrop.

But it wasn’t so much the engineering project that is currently under way to develop a much-needed new crossing of the Tyne that was on everyone’s lips. Rather, it was the prospect of a high-speed rail link connecting the North East with London and Edinburgh.

Transport Minister Geoff Hoon set the tone when he told the dinner on the eve of the conference that he believed there was a strong case for a new high-speed line to run up the East coast rather than the West.

Then Business Secretary Peter Mandelson reopened the debate inadvertently yesterday, his address via video link from London having been rescheduled due to an impromptu call from the Prime Minister.

Obviously well briefed by his advisers on what the managing director of National Express East Coast, Susan Goldsmith, was due to say in her address to the conference, he went on to back her call for high-speed rail before she’d even made it.

But, via the stuttering video message, he made clear that any such link must include the North East, and not end at Leeds as had been previously suggested by the Conservatives.

Ms Goldsmith – her thunder stolen somewhat – still managed to convey her company’s passion for the need for a new rail link, and even committed the firm to drawing up the business case for the new line.

So then the pressure was on shadow chancellor George Osborne to show his cards and he hastily added a line into his speech about the Tories’ new commitment to extending high speed to the North East, once the route to Leeds was finished.

At the end of the day, there was at least some sort of consensus emerging, with even Lib Dem Vince Cable adding his support during his speech, which was disappointingly cut short due to the rescheduling of Mr Mandelson’s contribution.

Sadly, it meant there was no time for a Q&A with either the rail boss or Mr Cable, the pre-eminent voice on the economic crisis. All the changes to the timetable had inevitably left the pair late for their respective trains.