Scheme should be ‘shunted into the sidings’
Campaign group HACAN, which represents residents under the Heathrow flight paths, branded the Government’s high-speed rail scheme, announced today, ‘an expensive white elephant’. HACAN argues that high-speed rail should be built instead of a third runway at Heathrow; not in addition to it.
HACAN Chair John Stewart said, “High speed rail is only a green way to travel if it is designed to take cars off the road and planes out of the air. This scheme has all the hallmarks of being hastily put together so that Gordon Brown can have a plan for high-speed rail in his pocket in time for the General Election. It is more about electioneering than creating a sustainable transport system for the UK. It is an expensive white elephant, not a green solution. The Conservatives are quite right to refuse to buy into it.”
Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats favour building a high-speed rail scheme to Scotland as an alternative to a third runway at Heathrow.
The Government scheme outlines a detailed route just as far as Birmingham. But it would only have the potential to create a significant switch to rail if it went as far as Scotland. In the past decade the air/rail share of the market to Scotland has been heavily weighted in favour of air. Until recently, when its market share has shown some improvement, rail has struggled to get over 12% of the market. By contrast, it has around two-thirds of the share of the market to Manchester and Newcastle.
The scheme was drawn up by a government-appointed quango, High Speed 2, headed up by Sir David Rowlands. Rowlands was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport from 2003 until he retired in 2007. It was during his tenure as the top civil servant at the Department that the Air Transport White Paper came into place and the plans for a third runway at Heathrow were developed. Rowlands, his controversial attempt to join the Board of BAA on retirement having been blocked by the Government, is now the Chairman of Gatwick Airport.
The Labour Government’s backing for high-speed rail has only come about in the last few years. In its 2007 rail strategy it ruled out a high-speed north-south rail line out on the grounds of ‘unclear benefits’ and ‘considerable costs’ and because it believed the environmental benefits of high-speed trains were ‘over-stated’. Yet only a year later, and just months after the Tories had announced their plans for high-speed rail, the Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon said the Government would be considering new high-speed rail lines. Indeed, in his first appearance before the Commons transport select committee, he enthused, “I am passionate about assessing the scope for new rail lines, including high-speed ones.”
John Stewart concluded, “This scheme was drawn up by a quango headed up by a man who has spent a lot of his career promoting aviation. It is little more than an election gimmick and should be shunted into the sidings.”
ENDS
For further information:
John Stewart on 0207 737 6641 or 07957385650