Out-Law News 2 min. read

Proposed new HS2 route a 'cause for concern', expert says


A politician's call for a new route for the HS2 High Speed Rail link is "a cause for deep concern", an expert has said. 

In a speech to the Airport Operators Association, Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle outlined an alternative route to the proposed £32 billion national high-speed rail link.

The alternative route would still run from London Euston to Birmingham but would follow the M40 and Chiltern line in parts, according to a report by the BBC. Eagle said this would "make better use of existing transport corridors" and avoid "an area of outstanding natural beauty".

"If this were to happen it would also open up the opportunity to connect to the Great Western mainline, bringing the benefits of the high speed line to the South West," she said.

However construction law expert Patrick Twist of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that questioning the route this late in the process was "irresponsible" and "really unhelpful". The Secretary of State is due to make a decision on the consultation in the next couple of months.

"The route she is questioning is the route selected as a result of a report which the Labour Government commissioned more than two and a half years ago. Through cross-party consensus, the Coalition adopted that route and has been committed to seeing the route through the complex consultation process. Any review of the route now would add certain delays to an already lengthy consultation process and further postpone the day when HS2 will run - as it is, that is still a full fifteen years away," he said.

A recent consultation (25-page / 3MB PDF) set out the Government's favoured route for the new high speed rail network, which would consist of an initial line from London to the West Midlands. Onward legs to Manchester and Leeds, as well as a 'spur' connecting to Heathrow Airport, would be built as part of the second phase of the scheme.

The full network will cost around £32bn to construct, but will create "unprecedented" passenger capacity increases and reduce journey times. Trains capable of reaching speeds of 225 miles per hour would allow a journey time between Birmingham and London of 49 minutes.

The new lines would enable 14 or more additional train services per hour and be designed to accommodate larger trains capable of carrying up to 1,100 passengers, according to the consultation.

The UK currently has one high-speed railway line, which connects London to the Channel Tunnel via Kent.

Twist said that delay to the scheme while the Shadow Transport Secretary's proposals are considered could result in "years of blight" for homes and businesses which could be potentially affected by proposals for a new route.

"Already the local press is raising fears around Warwick and Banbury – it was precisely to avoid this problem that HS2 Limited was asked to come up with a single route and not a series of alternatives," he said.

Twist added that it was unlikely that Eagle had looked at the costs of her proposals for an alternative route.

"Under Labour and the Coalition a large team spent a long term carefully assessing costs and benefits. Without proper costings the proposals for an alternative route simply lack credibility," he said.

"Delay is likely to result in costs going up. To throw a spanner in the works by putting up another route is simply irresponsible if Ms Eagle genuinely believes, as she says, that HS2 is the 'only credible way' of tackling overcrowding on the network."

The Secretary of State for Transport is due to announce the outcome of the consultation process and the Government's final decision on HS2 before the end of 2011.

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