Labour's high speed train plans given the bullet (From Darlington and Stockton Times)
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Labour's high speed train plans given the bullet
5:14pm Thursday 13th May 2010 in News
The Japanese bullet train
PLANS for a 250mph rail line from London to the North face an 18-month delay, as the new coalition government rethinks the project from scratch.
New Transport Secretary Phil Hammond is expected to rip up Labour’s plans for an autumn consultation on proposals for a £30bn high-speed rail network and explore his own options for routes.
If a fresh study is set up - the Conservative policy before the election - it might take 18 months to complete and take to the consultation stage.
However, the Tories committed themselves to building a North-South high-speed line before Labour adopted the policy. The party’s manifesto pledged to “begin work immediately”.
Furthermore, a fresh consultation need not mean a delay to the start of construction work, given that the first tracks were not due to be laid until 2019 under Labour’s plans.
The region faced disappointment in March, when then-Transport Secretary Lord Adonis rejected plans to run the 250mph trains all the way to the North-East and Scotland as too expensive.
Nevertheless, the line would deliver benefits. It would slash the London-Newcastle journey time from 3hrs 9mins to 2hrs 37mins - because high-speed trains would switch to conventional tracks at Leeds.
Furthermore, it is badly needed to ease looming overcrowding problems on the existing East Coast line, creating extra capacity for passengers and freight.
The new government will come under fierce pressure to rethink the Tory idea of an ‘S-shape’ single line through Manchester to Leeds - condemned as “crazy” by one rail expert, in March.
Another intriguing transport issue is the future of Lib Dem plans to slap a tax on short domestic flights from the likes of Newcastle and Durham airports, to encourage train travel instead.
This week’s policy document adopted the Lib Dem policy to replace air passenger duty with a ‘per plane’ levy, including business jet and air freight flights - but was silent on a higher rate on domestic flights.
