High Speed Rail UK

The nation’s cities are the drivers of our economic prosperity. One third of the UK’s population live in cities; many millions more commute into them every day; London and the cities behind HSR:UK generate 55 per cent of our national wealth.

Over the past two decades our cities have diversified their economic bases to become home to a wide range of very different industries. Much of the UK’s recent economic success has been due to the rapid growth of knowledge industries – those that trade on technical, scientific or creative know-how. The growth of these sectors depends upon a highly mobile workforce, access to large potential business markets and the interconnectivity that allows businesses to share ideas and develop new products. As ties between companies and operations in different towns and cities improve, productivity increases – a process known as agglomeration – and the UK economy as a whole benefits.

• Birmingham is home to Europe’s largest conference centre.
• At £23,962 per head, Bristol’s GDP now stands at 40 per cent above the national average.
• Between 1998 and 2007 total employment in Cardiff grew by 28 per cent – compared with growth of just nine per cent in Britain as a whole.
• The population of Edinburgh has grown by more than 21,000 over the past decade.
• Glasgow’s annual economic growth rate is second only to that of London.
• Greater Manchester increased its GVA by 54 per cent between 1997 and 2006.
• The number of people working in Banking, Finance and Insurance in the Leeds city region increased by 48 per cent between 1997 and 2007.
• The Liverpool city region has the highest concentration of bio manufacturing businesses in Europe.
• Between 2000 and 2007 the employment rate of Newcastle increased at a faster rate than the average for England.
• Fifty-four per cent of people in Nottingham are now employed in knowledge-intensive industries.
• Sheffield is now ranked among the top ten locations in the UK to locate a business.

Naturally, London’s economic and cultural success is pivotal to that of the UK as a whole. As a financial and business centre it is practically unrivalled: London trades more US dollars than New York, and more euros than every other European city combined; more than half the UK’s FTSE 100 companies and over 100 of Europe’s 500 largest companies are headquartered in central London, and three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies have offices there.

However, the lack of efficient connectivity between London and many cities in the UK prevents businesses from making the most of their economic potential. The journey from Liverpool to London (312km, 2hrs 7min), or Sheffield to London (269km, 2hr 9min) for example, takes longer than the time it takes to get from Paris to Brussels (313km, 1hr 22min) or Paris to Metz (312km, 1hr 23min) on HSR! The UK’s future lies in the knowledge economy, but our transport network is inadequate for its needs. Meanwhile, European cities are being drawn closer together by a rapidly expanding HSR network – and increasing their advantage over the UK.

We have no doubt that a HSR network in the UK will transform the face of national travel and in doing so will massively benefit both national and regional economies. Hugely reduced journey times will make business and leisure trips more convenient and attractive, and bring economic centres closer together; this will build productivity, reduce the North-South imbalance and bring about a shift in economic geography.

It’s not just cities that are set to benefit from HSR. Cities and their hinterlands have a symbiotic relationship; by supporting the growth of cities we ensure the prosperity of the towns and villages that surround them. While the latter rely on the cities for employment and leisure and cultural activities, the cities look to the areas around them to provide a large part of their workforce, which in turn expects the quality of life offered by high-quality housing and access to wide open spaces. Where good links exist between cities and the areas that surround them, local towns become ideal locations for specialist companies and back offices that may well support companies in more than one city.

HSR has the potential to add significant value to regeneration initiatives too. Experience in Lille and Lyon in France, Cologne in Germany, Cordoba in Spain, and Turin in Italy has shown that when high-speed rail links are incorporated into wider land-planning initiatives at an early stage, major improvements in economic activity and quality of life will follow.

Another bonus: as high-speed trains use separate tracks, congestion on the classic network is reduced with benefits to all rail services in terms of reduced journey times and reliability. For high-speed trains, a separate network means removal of congestion (which extends journey times) as well as higher levels of reliability. The average delay on the Japanese Shinkansen network is a mere nine seconds. Less congestion means lower power consumption and fewer emissions as well.

Sample journey times to London with HSR
City	Current journey time	Projected journey time*
Birmingham	1h 24m	42m – 50m
Bristol	1h 45m	1h 10m
Cardiff	2h 8m	1h 12m
Edinburgh	4h 26m	2h 20m – 3h 20m
Glasgow	4h 30m	2h 38m – 3h 35m
Leeds	2h 26m	1h 22m – 1h 39m
Liverpool	2h 8m	1h 33m – 1h 48m
Manchester	2h 8m	1h 13m – 1h 31m
Newcastle	3h 8m	1h 40m – 2h 21m
Nottingham	1h 50m	50min – 1h 5m
Sheffield	2h 9m	1h – 1h 17m
* Dependent on network

Sample journey times between selected cities
City	Current (typical)	Projected journey time*
Birmingham- Manchester	1h 36m	43m
Birmingham-Leeds	1h 59m	1h 9m
Birmingham-Paris	4h 27m	2h 48m – 2h 56m
Cardiff-London	2h 8m	1h 12m
Manchester-Newcastle	2h 37m	1h 8m – 1h 27m
Manchester-Edinburgh	3h 43m	1h 51m – 2h 15m
Leeds-Newcastle	1h 35m	42m – 1h 30m
Leeds-Glasgow	4h 21m	1h 54m – 3h 3m
Edinburgh-Glasgow	49m	28m
Sheffield-Manchester	1h 1m	23m – 27m
Sheffield-Newcastle	2h 5m	1h 28m
Bristol-Leeds	3h 32m	2h 53m
* Dependent on network