Full speed ahead for North West rail links

The vision for a network of high-speed rail lines across Britain has been unveiled, with the full support of Greater Manchester’s transport bosses.

Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) has welcomed the publication of Greengauge 21’s 25-year vision for a national high-speed rail network, which could be worth up to £125 billion to the national economy.

GMITA is part of the Public Interest Group that has fed into Greengauge 21’s proposals, and the report comes at the same time as the Authority embarks upon a political lobbying campaign over the Manchester Hub.

The Manchester Hub is the name given to the constraints on the heavy rail network in and around Oxford Road, Piccadilly and Victoria stations, and a Network Rail study into how best to address them is underway.

Councillor Keith Whitmore, Chairman of GMITA, said: “Anyone who is the slightest bit sceptical about high-speed rail needs to read this report, because its findings are staggering.

“We are talking about the next generation of travel, a chance to set a new standard for passengers and the significant and long-standing benefits to be had from fast and frequent connections with the capital and other major cities.

“It is an incredibly exciting report that the Government needs to give full and serious consideration to. It makes a crystal clear case for investment in not just one high-speed rail line, but several, and outlines just how much of a positive effect that would have on freeing capacity on the existing network.

“As we’ll be making clear to Westminster’s politicians in coming weeks, we will have to address the Manchester Hub before we can accommodate high-speed rail – but this report makes clear that the cost of not doing so would be disastrous and felt for generations.”

Britain’s first high-speed rail line, from St Pancras International to the Channel Tunnel, opened in autumn 2007.

The Government has since established its own company – High Speed Two – to plan a high-speed rail line between London and the West Midlands and potentially beyond, and a proposal is due to be published by the end of this year.

The Greengauge 21 report, entitled ‘Fast Forward: A High Speed Rail Strategy for Britain’, calls on the Government to consider the development of Britain’s second high-speed rail line within the context of developing an entire network of north-south and east-west lines, serving the country’s 11 principle cities.

Such a network would be capable of operating trains at speeds of up to 320km/h, with up to 15 trains an hour running on the dedicated lines – providing up to 15,000 seats per hour in each direction.

The report indicates that an initial North West route makes the best financial case, and would cut journey times from London to Manchester from two hours and 10 minutes to just one hour and 15 minutes.

Councillor Ian Macdonald, Vice Chairman of GMITA, said: “The benefit of reducing the north-south gap, in economic terms, is huge, and better and faster links between all the major cities will also attract more regional investment.

“But there are also significant environmental benefits to be had. Travel by high-speed rail produces one-third of the carbon emissions of car travel and a quarter of the emissions of an equivalent trip by air.

“This report is compelling and comprehensive and will give the Government a great deal of food for thought when it comes to consider the High Speed Rail Two proposal later this year.”

The cost of an initial North West route would be around £19 billion but, if realised in full, Greengauge 21’s proposed full network would cost in the order of £69 billion.

The overall benefits of a high-speed rail network are expected to total £111 billion over 60 years, with a net benefit of £63 billion. Additional benefits from wider, regional impacts could add a further £14bn to the total, providing a benefit-to-cost ratio of 3:1.