RECESSION WON'T CHANGE TORY PLANS FOR HIGH SPEED RAIL

RECESSION WON'T CHANGE TORY PLANS FOR HIGH SPEED RAIL, VILLIERS CONFIRMS

By Peter Cuthbertson
Chelgate Ltd
9th September 2009

Addressing the High Speed Rail Summit today, the Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers MP argued that the country is “about to embark on another transport revolution”. This revolution will mean being able “to hop on a train in Birmingham and arrive in Brussels in less than three hours”, bringing the Midlands “a huge step closer to Europe and to the European markets that the region’s many entrepreneurs wish to serve”.

Repeating her announcement of a high speed rail line connecting London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, Villiers stated her aspiration to see “a line that stretches north to Newcastle and Scotland and which ultimately expands to connect many of the UK’s major cities in a national high speed network”.

Villiers devoted much of her speech to answering those who have asked how the recession will impact these plans. She argued: 

“I can answer that question today. If we are elected, our plans for a new line to Manchester and Leeds will go ahead. We have carefully costed our proposal. We are confident that it’s workable and that it’s affordable. We stick by our commitment. We will deliver on it.”

The Shadow Transport Secretary made four arguments for sticking with the party’s existing high speed rail plans.

1. The major spend is unlikely to begin before 2015, so the state of the economy five years earlier matters less.

2. Construction can be expected to take about twelve years, so the total cost will be spread over a considerable period of time.

3. The lead times in building new railways are such that the country “can no longer put off a decision on a new line”.

4. High speed rail will pay for itself – Villiers cited a recent report by Network Rail arguing this.

Chelgate has years of experience in the transport and rail sectors. We worked with British Rail Telecommunications on its privatisation programme and have handled a variety of assignments on business aviation. Supporting our clients, our executives have organised industry conferences and a Westminster Hall debate, helping to lead a campaign on increasing the number of rail engineer apprenticeships and focusing on issues of rail health and safety, planning permission and infrastructure.