Responding to the Government’s announcement on high speed rail, Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), said:

“The Government’s announcement confirms rail as integral to the future success of the British economy, linking the nation’s major cities in a way which will transform how people get around the country.

“But this is just the start. Now the hard work must begin. We need to look through the detail of the plans and work out the best possible deal for passengers and taxpayers.

“At a time of constrained public finances and when investment in the existing network must continue, high speed rail must be affordable.
“Making the most of the role of the private sector will keep costs down for the taxpayer and draw on the considerable knowledge and experience of train companies in making sure high speed rail meets the needs of passengers and businesses.”

ENDS

If you would like to view this press release please click here.

Theresa Villiers MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, wrote the below blog on today’s announcement about plans to take forward proposals for a new high speed rail network that first appeared on ConservativeHome.com

Two years ago the Conservative Party took the bold step of announcing a timetabled and costed commitment to deliver a north-south high speed line. At the time, Labour had made it clear that high speed rail had no part to play in their in their 30 year strategy for the railways. But we remained steadfast in our support for this crucial upgrade to the nation’s transport system – and we have led the debate on high speed rail ever since.

Since then, high speed rail has started to gather support from across the political spectrum. We welcomed Lord Adonis’s interest in this issue and his decision to establish the company, HS2 Ltd, to look at how plans for high speed rail could be taken forward.

However, when it comes to such a large and important investment in the future of Britain’s infrastructure, it is essential that we get high speed rail right. And the proposals that Lord Adonis is expected to announce today show that in important respects, Labour has got it wrong — for the economy and for the environment.

For example, Labour’s proposed route will only go as far as Birmingham. This is their first step. Anything north of Birmingham remains, at best, just an aspiration for Labour. This leaves the North, Scotland, and Wales out of the massive social, economic, and regenerative benefits of high speed rail.

And crucially, Labour proposals are not expected to integrate Heathrow into the proposed new network. Failing to take high speed rail to the UK’s most important airport would be a big mistake and a major lost opportunity for the environment. Labour’s deeply misguided support for a third runway has distorted their approach to high speed rail. Their blind determination to press ahead with a new runway would do untold damage to our environment and the quality of life of millions of people.

Because they see high speed rail as an addition to and not an alternative to a third runway, their plans are not expected to integrate the airport into the new high speed rail network. For us, encouraging people to switch from the plane to the train should be pivotal in decisions on high speed rail. We believe high speed rail has the potential to provide an attractive alternative to thousands of short haul flights at Heathrow, playing a significant part in relieving capacity pressure and improving the airport.

Realising this potential, and reaping the benefits in terms of reducing emissions and pollution, needs a bigger vision for high speed rail than we have had from Labour.

The next Conservative government will begin work immediately to create a high speed rail line connecting London and Heathrow with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, with construction to begin in 2015. The commitment to build this line is the first step towards achieving our vision of a national high speed rail network to join up major cities across England, Scotland and Wales.

As well as well as encouraging a big switch from air to rail, this will free up space on our existing railways and also provide an alternative for thousands of journeys that are clogging up one of the most congested motorway corridors in the UK.

Our plans to take high speed rail to the North will boost jobs and investment right across the country and bring particularly strong benefits to the regions. We believe it is essential that the North is not short changed and left out of high speed rail and the major regeneration opportunities it will generate.

We have made it clear that the business case for high speed rail is so strong that the project is affordable — even if fares are low enough to be accessible to a wide range of ordinary families. We have made a clear pledge to the travelling public that we see no point in building a line which only the rich can afford to use. No equivalent promise has been made by Labour.

So while we are part of the growing consensus of political parties, local authorities, business and environmental groups backing the case for high speed rail in the UK, we are adamant that Britain’s high speed solution must be right for the environment and for the economy. And in failing to integrate Heathrow into the network and setting out plans that don’t make it past the Midlands, Labour have got it wrong.

We must not miss this opportunity. The decisions we make now will have a profound impact on our transport system for generations to come. Only a Conservative Government has the energy, leadership and commitment to deliver high speed rail’s full potential for Britain.

To read Theresa Villiers MPs blog on ConservativeHome.com please click here

The Secretray of State for Transport, Lord Adonis, today announced plans to take forward proposals for a new high speed rail network in the UK which would deliver an initial core high speed rail network linking London to Birmingham, Manchester, the East Midlands, Sheffield and Leeds, with trains running at up to 250 miles per hour.

It was also announced that Transport Minister Sadiq Khan will be visiting the North West to explain how these proposals could benefit the region.

Adonis sets out high speed rail proposals; DfT Press Release

The Ministerial statement and information on proposals for high speed rail plus the details on the formation of High Speed Two Ltd can be viewed below.

Ministerial Statement

High Speed Rail – Command Paper

High Speed Rail – Summary

High Speed Rail: London to Birmingham

High Speed Rail: London Euston

High Speed Two Ltd

Britains Transport Infrastructure: High Speed Two

Objectives and remit for High Speed Two

HSR\\UK, a campaign coalition of Britain’s 11 leading cities has said the publication today of the HS2 Report and the Government’s High Speed Rail Command Paper was a welcome start to developing a high speed rail (HSR) network in the country.

The cross-party campaign, which is building political and community support for a high speed rail network across Britain welcomed the commitment to the first stage of such a network and the detail of the plans outlined in HS2.

Leaders from Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, stressed the need for cross-party consensus to ensure the momentum for creating a high-speed rail network is not dissipated.

The importance of high speed rail to our cities is widely supported – and today’s announcement underlines that.  The eleven cities, which generate more than a quarter of Britain’s wealth, pointed to the major economic benefits a high speed rail network will bring in terms of economic growth and employment, spreading prosperity throughout the country.  We are pleased to see that high speed rail going into the heart of cities is a key part of the plans.

The campaign pointed to the recent report from Greengauge 21, which showed that a high speed rail network could boost annual economic output in 2040 by between £17bn and £29bn and create between 25,000 and 42,000 additional jobs in Britain.

Cllr Sir Richard Leese, HSR\\UK campaign chair and leader of Manchester City council, welcomed the report saying:

“This is a historic first step towards a high speed rail network connecting all of our major city regions.  The HS2 report and the White Paper outlines a route in commendable detail – this is a proper blueprint, not just a line on the map.  It is also important that Government has recognised the potential for the future high speed network to be capable of being integrated with the existing rail network allowing trains to run beyond the new lines to more cities.

“We all recognise the key benefits high speed rail would bring: connectivity and economic development, an increase in rail capacity for both passengers and freight, and, of course, modal shift from domestic aviation to a much greener form of transport.

“We have put aside our party differences and regional rivalries to campaign together for a high speed network which links all of our city regions, as well as connecting with London and thus the rest of Europe.  This line must be the first part of such a network – the beginning, not a one-off.

“There are only 68 miles of high speed rail line in Britain, compared with 3,500 miles in mainland Europe.  We urgently need to redress this balance; today’s report is a good way to begin, but we must not delay any further.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact Mike Katz on 020 7787 1219 / 07799 621218 or Pamela McDade on 0141 229 4050

Notes to editors

The HSR\\UK campaign is a coalition of 11 of the UK’s major cities, including Edinburgh, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham and Cardiff, building support for a national high speed rail network.

The campaign website can be viewed at: www.highspeedrailuk.com

High Speed Rail (HSR) is commonly defined as a railway capable of operating at 320km (200mph) and above, and is typically designed for passengers rather than freight. The first HSR line opened in Japan in 1964 and other countries followed quickly. Today France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy are just some of our European competitors with HSR networks. The UK’s first high-speed railway, HS1, linking London to the Channel Tunnel opened in November 2007 and is having a major impact on travel between the UK and continental Europe, cutting journey times between London and Paris to 2hr 15mins and between London and Brussels to 1hr 51min, whilst also helping to ease capacity constraints on London’s radial commuter rail network. Europe is now developing a network of high speed rail lines which allow for seamless journeys across Europe with co-ordinated ticketing and passenger services.

*As outlined within DfT’s CP4 and CP5 plans; ‘Delivering Sustainable Railway’ White Paper 2007 and the ‘High Level Output Specification’ (HLOS) statement.

GREENGAUGE 21

High-speed rail will enhance economic performance and will boost annual economic output between £17bn and £29bn, by 2040 says Greengauge 21 in a new study entitled High-speed Rail in Britain: Consequences for Employment and Economic Growth.

Greengauge 21 Director, Jim Steer said: “Our new analysis demonstrates that in the long term the Treasury will be winners too, through substantial additional tax revenues.”

The study was undertaken by leading management consultancy KPMG, whose partner, Lewis Atter, said: “Evidence on the importance of rail to the economy and thus exchequer revenues is scarce. Our work for Greengauge is an attempt to put that right. Using evidence on how rail connectivity and economic performance are linked today, we have asked what high-speed rail (HSR) could do in the future. This is a new way of thinking about the economic returns to transport investment, focused on its impact on the supply side of the economy.

The questions it poses about the long term returns to different kinds of investment will become increasingly important as the country faces up to the decisions necessary to reduce the deficit whilst also promoting longer term growth”.

Additional annual economic impacts on this scale could increase annual tax receipts by between £6bn and £10bn by 2040 (2010 prices). “HSR therefore delivers a good return to the Treasury and taxpayer and is a cost effective approach to securing future national prosperity”, the report suggests.

The KPMG work estimates that a national HSR network could contribute between 25,000 and 42,000 additional jobs in Britain, as more productive businesses offer higher wages and attract more people into the labour market.

The report explains that a comprehensive national network of high speed services could provide a step change in business to business connectivity and effectively link the major cities, creating a single national market for service sector and knowledge based businesses.

HSR could have substantial impacts on Great Britain’s economic geography, tending to concentrate activity in the centre of the core cities served as well as changing the future pattern of regional economic growth.

The greater economic impacts are in the north of the country, with the largest gains in Yorkshire and the Humber, Scotland, the North East and North West and the East and West Midlands. In this sense HSR really could help to spread prosperity outside the most productive areas of the South East and London and could contribute to closing the north-south divide.

The findings of the report have been endorsed by HSR\\UK, the campaign coalition of 11 major cities which together generate over a quarter of Britain’s wealth.

Cllr Mike Whitby, Leader of Birmingham City Council which is a member of the HSR\\UK campaign group, said:

“The report makes clear that a high speed line would be a catalyst for economic growth for the whole country, and would generate new jobs in those regions where a skilled workforce exists. It would increase national economic output, and would change the pattern of regional economic growth for the better.”

“This regional distributional effect, strengthening the viability of cities, is the key to creating a wpattern of sustainable land use development over the century ahead”, suggests Greengauge 21 Director Jim Steer. “No other transport investment option has this virtuous characteristic”, he added.

END

Notes to Editors

1. Greengauge 21’s new report entitled “High-Speed Rail: Consequences for employment and economic growth” can be downloaded from the website www.greengauge21.net It is also available from Marion Gourlay: marion@transportpr.com

2. The work was commissioned by Greengauge 21 from KPMG on behalf of the HSR Public Interest Group which brings together public sector agencies and representative bodies to investigate and develop plans for high-speed rail in Britain.

3. For more information or to set up an interview with Greengauge and its report authors from KPMG, please contact:
Marion Gourlay, TransportPR 07801 301 259 marion@transportpr.com
Jim Steer 07785 242506 jim.steer@sdgworld.net
Julie Mills 07956 405003 julie.mills@greengauge21.net

4. Jim Steer will be speaking at the HS2 Conference: New Investment, New Opportunity on Thursday 25th February 2010, hosted by Birmingham City Council at the International Convention Centre (ICC), Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2EA. Jim Steer and Lewis Atter will be available for interview in Birmingham from 1.15pm at the ICC. If you would like to attend, please contact Marion Gourlay on 07801 301259.

5. Greengauge 21 was established in 2006, to initiate the debate on high-speed rail in Britain.

6. The Greengauge 21 HSR Public Interest Group was established in Spring 2008, to develop the case for a network of high speed lines, resulting in the definitive report Fast Forward: A High Speed Rail Strategy for Britain, published in September 2009

7.The HSR Public Interest Group membership comprises:
• Advantage West Midlands
• Association of North East Councils
• ATOC
• Birmingham City Council
• City of London Corporation
• East Midlands Development Agency
• Glasgow-Edinburgh Collaboration Initiative
• Network Rail
• Newcastle City Council
• Northern Way (the partnership led by the three northern RDAs)
• PTE Group
• Railway Industry Association
• SEStran
• Sheffield City Region
• South West Regional Development Agency
• Transport for London

8. HSR//UK is a committed group of 11 major UK cities – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield – that have joined together to call for the development of a high-speed rail network, which will not only link centres of economic activity in the UK, but also connect to the high-speed network already in existence in Europe. The 11 cities together are responsible for generating over 25 per cent of the nation’s wealth.

Election 2010 – the Rail debate will bring together the key front bench representatives from the major parties to discuss what strategies their teams will adopt if they are elected to Government.

The Conservatives will be represented by Stephen Hammond MP

The Liberal Democrats will be represented by Norman Baker MP

The Green Party will be represented by Alan Francis

The Labour Party will be represented by a Chris Mole MP

To find out more please click here

Campaign Chair of HSR//UK, Sir Richard Leese laid down the gauntlet today - at the Transport Times Conference, London - for a post-election strategy on a high speed rail network that benefits the whole of the UK, allowing the economies of major cities to expand.

Speaking as part of Transport Times Conference Panel, Sir Richard Leese said: “High Speed Rail is something that all parties are signed up to, which is a positive step forward.  However if it is to be effective, then it must be comprehensive. 

“The HSR//UK coalition of 11 of the UK’s major cities is campaigning for the development of a high speed rail network, not just one or two lines, but a comprehensive network.  We need to begin to rebalance economic development across the UK, taking pressure off London and supporting the economic development of cities throughout the country.

“High speed rail has a major role to play by pulling cities together, but it cannot be done in a piecemeal fashion.  After the election, regardless of who is in power, we need a cohesive strategy for a HSR network, which benefits the whole of the UK by allowing the economies of all our major cities to expand.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact Pamela McDade at Freshwater on 0141 229 4050 or email pamela.mcdade@freshwater-uk.com

Notes to editors:

HSR\\UK – The HSR\\UK campaign is a coalition of 11 of the UK’s major cities, including Edinburgh, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham and Cardiff, building support for a national high speed network, seeing both business and pleasure travellers getting to city destinations faster and more efficiently than any other form of land transport.

The House of Commons Transport Select Committee have published its report on ‘Priorities for investment in the railways’, which says that future high speed rail investment should not be at the expense of maintaining investment in the “classic” rail network. 

To read the report, please click here.

A new report from Greengauge 21 says that it is essential that high-speed rail should serve Heathrow Airport directly, but that the HS2 scheme linking London and The West Midlands should not be compromised to achieve this.

Instead, the report proposes a Heathrow Interconnection Network – new rail links that would shadow the M25, connecting the new high-speed lines to the existing rail network and creating a new surface transport hub station actually at the airport.

The report calls on Government to instigate studies into the detailed options for HSR at the airport and to ensure that provision is made in the work on HS2 for the Interconnection Network to be added in due course.

Greengauge 21 Director Jim Steer said:

“Our evidence shows that the Heathrow Interconnection Network has an excellent business case. High-speed rail would provide an attractive and better alternative to short-haul aviation, both on domestic (main land British routes) and to the near-continent.

“We are not seeking to engage in the Runway Three debate. We are simply concerned to dispel the idea that it is not possible to serve Heathrow directly by HSR. There are three sites at Heathrow itself suitable for a HSR station.

“The importance of linking Heathrow to the national rail network is that it would allow Heathrow, with its huge range of business-critical long-haul flights, to serve the whole of Britain effectively, not just London and the South East.”

Greengauge 21’s report entitled “The Heathrow Opportunity” can be viewed here.

With last year’s publication of route proposals by Network Rail and Greengauge 21, it’s now the right time for the West Midlands to come together to discuss how we might support the proposals that affect us. On the 25 February 2010 at the ICC in Birmingham, business leaders from Birmingham and the wider West Midlands will meet to reflect on the work which has been undertaken into potential routes, economic benefits and the logistical benefits to local networks of high speed rail in the West Midlands.

Speakers include Council Leader Mike Whitby, representatives from Advantage West Midlands, Centro and Birmingham Forward, and Glenn Howells, director of the award winning architectural firm, who will explore the development opportunities which could be opened up by a new high speed rail terminal in Birmingham city centre.

To find out more please click here.