AIRPORT chiefs have launched a fierce attack on the Government’s high-speed rail plans as questions mount over the benefits it will bring to the North East.
Newcastle Airport has written to the Government warning that it can no longer support the proposed £32bn high-speed rail plans which it is claimed will undermine air services, drain resources and leave areas which do not directly benefit at a severe economic disadvantage.
The airport’s concerns come as members of the Tyne & Wear Transport Authority issued a similar warning that the region faces been left with only “Victorian era” rail connections.
Secretary of State Philip Hammond is hoping to win Northern support for the overall high-speed rail plans, which will see a line built from London to Birmingham before heading in a Y-shape to Manchester and Leeds. The trains will then travel on the existing East Coast line north to Newcastle and Scotland.
In their response to the Government’s consultation which closes today, airport bosses said the proposed economic benefits of the new line do not appear to take into account the demise in air passenger numbers which will result from the new route.
They had hoped the line would stop at the airport, but the Government is now selling the benefits of high-speed links to Heathrow from existing stations in the North.
The airport submission goes on to warn: “We are concerned that as the North East is not included in the scheme, our region will experience many of the disbenefits without the same degree of benefits enjoyed by other key centres.”
Chief executive David Laws added: “We realise that there are a number of stakeholders in our region that strongly support the HSR proposal and it is for this reason that we have very carefully considered our justification for opposing the scheme.
“We believe that London and cities further South will be the main beneficiaries and that those places further North will see deteriorating connectivity as the full impacts of the scheme are felt.”
Graeme Mason, airport planning director, said: “For some considerable time we have been cautiously supportive of high-speed rail in the expectation that it might come to the region and even stop at the airport.
“On the basis of the information published by the Government, we have reluctantly decided to withdraw this support. For our region, the case just doesn’t stack up. We would derive far fewer benefits than places further South, like Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham, but could suffer significant disbenefits if air services are lost as a result of a switch from air to rail. It seems to us that the further North you go, the lower the benefits and the higher the disbenefits.”
At the same time as the consultation response was finalised, members of the region’s transport authority were meeting yesterday to agree their response, which calls on the Government to act “urgently” and set out what plans it has to extend the line to Newcastle.
Coun Gerry Keeting, a Newcastle Liberal Democrat, said: “The evidence from France and Spain is that it is just Paris and Madrid that mainly benefit.”
Newcastle cabinet member Henri Murison said that while he supports high-speed rail, he warned it must not come at the cost of taking investment away from the existing rail structure.
