Anne Main questions best use of public spending on the rails
By debbigg | Sunday, October 16, 2011, 10:16
Anne Main has questioned the best use of public spending on the rails in The House of Commons at a well-attended debate on the proposal for High Speed 2 (HS2), exploring high speed rail travel between London and Scotland.
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Anne Main joined in the debate on the £32billion HS2 debate.
The initial proposal for HS2 is for a London to the West Midlands fast line, with feasibility studies extending to northern England and Scotland. The proposed route for the line passes through Buckinghamshire to the west of us, here in St Albans.
The St Albans MP joined in with fellow politicians as they debated the pros and cons of the £32billion proposal passing through their constituencies, last Thursday, 13th October 2011. Along with others, Anne called for consideration of how the money could instead be used to improve the rail infrastructure and services for their constituents.
In the debate, Anne Main said: "I completely concur with the hon. Gentleman. The same train line goes through our constituencies. I also agree with my hon. Friend the Member for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom) that we should be looking at many other areas in which to invest. We could move many more passengers around the country. The hon. Gentleman is making a perfect argument for looking at this matter again."
On leaving the Chamber Anne went on to say: "I believe that there were powerful arguments raised casting questions on the wisdom of HS2; many raised by my fellow Hertfordshire MPs. Could we spend the £32 Billion that this scheme is costing on a better plan; for example improving existing lines. I think it is very interesting and important to discuss the business sense behind this scheme, as well as the environmental concerns that have been raised regarding it. Other uses of this funding may be better for getting people on public transport and I am glad that all these options will be considered by the Select Committee."
Comments
Yet again a simplistic, ill thought out (dare I say knee jerk) and populist response to this complex issue. Firstly let's debunk one myth from the start - there is no mythical huge pot of money involved in the present period of austerity that could miraculously be diverted to suddenly transform the existing network - the vast majority of the £32bn headline budget figure quoted above is dedicated to a period ten years hence so we should stop debating this matter as though choices were being made in the here and now! Secondly you can't overnight transform a network starved of investment over a 30 odd year period - you do it gradually and thoughtfully - consider the WCML upgrade debacle costing approx £9bn of taxpayers money, the best part of ten years and utter misery for rail travellers - do we really want to go down that road (or rail) again - thought not! Finally the existing network IS being upgraded - go and check out the recently announced Network Rail plans for the next control period together with the massive improvements already in hand - Northern Hub, Manchester - Liverpool electrification, Ordsall Cord, GWL Electrification, Investment in ECML including new rolling stock – the upgrad is already happening but it takes time and we STILL need HS2 to address the looming capacity shortfall (that everyone agrees on). HS2 is simply one piece in a very long term strategic improvement of the UK's infrastructure - one that will connect a significant percentage of the UK population directly into the burgeoning pan-European High Speed Rail (HSR) network - we need to stop thinking in a compartmentalised 20th century fashion - last time I looked in an atlas the UK was in Europe and HSR is eminently suited to Europe as a credible alternative to unsustainable short haul intra European air travel. Manchester to Lyon, Birmingham to Marseille, Leeds to Amsterdam, all in under four hours by dedicated HSR services - that's connectivity and it's the way forward - time to stop prevaricating, ignore the siren voices emanating from a tiny, nakedly self-interested audience who happen to live in close proximity to the proposed line of route for HS2 - time to get on and start building for the future!
By padav at 13:53 on 19/10/11
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