(UK) House of Commons: Transport Select Committee
Transport Committee publish High speed rail: on track? report
13 December 2013
MPs back the strategic case for HS2, but call for a full assessment of the case for building from the north towards the south.
- Report: High speed rail: on track? (HTML)
- Report: High speed rail: on track? (PDF)
- Inquiry page: High speed rail: on track?
- Transport Committee
Launching a follow up to a report on HS2 published two years ago, Louise Ellman MP, Chair of the Transport Committee, said today:
“We support the strategic case for HS2 published recently by the Government. Having looked at this, and at new research by KPMG that examined the project’s possible regional economic benefits, we remain confident that construction of a new high speed line is the only way to deliver the step change in capacity on the West Coast Main Line needed to accommodate long-term demand for both passengers and rail freight. This confirms the conclusions reached in 2011 when this committee looked closely at the original business case to build HS2 and backed those proposals.
“HS2 can also play a major role in promoting economic growth in the UK’s major city regions. We welcome the assurance given to us recently by Sir David Higgins, incoming Chair of HS2, that he will re-examine the case for building the line from north-to-south, as well as from London northwards.”
The Committee also calls for:
- DfT to emphasise more clearly to the public that the estimated cost of HS2 is £28 billion, not £50 billion, and that cost increases to date are largely due to the decision to undertake more tunnelling and other works to mitigate the impact of the project on people living near the route.
- DfT to review the appropriateness of applying its standard
appraisal methodology to large projects with national significance. - HS2 Ltd to commission further work on the regional economic benefits of high speed rail.
- Local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships to draw up economic development strategies which make the most out of HS2 and for central Government to provide support for this.
- Government to publish a strategy for ensuring that UK firms and workers throughout the country gain maximum benefit from HS2
- DfT to speed up work to identify new service patterns on capacity set to be freed up by the construction of HS2 and to give clear priority to additional rail projects which will enable trains from a wider range of areas than currently envisaged to gain access to the high speed network.
“If we are to spread the benefits from HS2 as widely as possible, it is vital we improve links between the conventional and high speed networks and bring forward projects to speed up journey times on the conventional network.”
Lastly, while acknowledging that there is no evidence that the Government is reducing other forms of transport spending in order to fund HS2, the Committee warns that its support for HS2 is not unqualified:
“We would not accept a situation in which other vital transport projects were delayed because of HS2’s funding requirements and we remain concerned about how refinements - for example to incorporate a stop for Heathrow into the plans for phase 1 - may have an impact on the budget,” added Louise Ellman.
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US HSR
HIGH SPEED RAIL IS UNDERWAY IN AMERICA!
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HIGH SPEED RAIL IS UNDERWAY IN AMERICA!
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 California High Speed Rail Construction Package 1 is Underway; RFQ for Construction Packages 2 & 3 Statements Now DueThe due date for Statement of Qualifications from interested firms is today. |
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DESPITE RULING, "HSR MUST GO FORWARD"
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 Construction to Continue as Planned, Funding Plan will Need Reworking
From California High Speed Rail Blog:
Once again we're seeing that in the wake of Judge Michael Kenny's unfavorable ruling for the high speed rail project, longtime institutional supporters are still backing the HSR project. This time it's the San Francisco Chronicle editorializing that the project must go forward. "A project this enormous was never going to be easy to build. The cost and planning concerns must be answered - the judge's concerns are legitimate - but there is no escaping the future problems of air and road traffic, pollution and geographic inequities this system will help alleviate. High-speed rail must go forward, judiciously and expeditiously." -San Francisco Chronicle US High Speed Rail Association views the California high speed rail system as a Special Project of National Significance. "It's the largest, most advanced HSR project in the nation," said Andy Kunz, USHSR President. "There's widespread public and business support for this project. Congress needs to stop playing with the American people's future and properly fund this important project." More info |
PUBLIC SHIFT FROM DRIVING TO RAIL ACCELERATES
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New Report Calls for Changes to the Forms of Transportation We Fund
In what many now see as a permanent trend, driving in America has been on the decline for a number of years, while rail ridership has been on the rise. Most of the forces driving this trend will continue to worsen over time including high gas prices, paralyzing congestion levels, and deteriorating road infrastructure.
Positive forces also driving this trend include the increased desirability of city living, riding trains and bicycles, and walking. There has been a huge shift underway of Americans moving back to cities. This shift has been underway for several decades but has been accelerating in recent years.
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Americans are fed up with annoying congestion day in and day out, everywhere they go, wasting so much time stuck barely moving.
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According to the study, the use of non-driving modes of transportation has increased in a majority of the nation's most populous urbanized areas.
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"Government should support transportation initiatives that reflect these travel trends. Instead of wasting taxpayer dollars continuing to enlarge our grandfather's Interstate Highway System, we should invest in the kinds of transportation options that the public increasingly favors." -Phineas Baxandall, Senior Analyst, U.S. PIRG Education Fund
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| New Report | News Release | New Generation | New Direction | BetterCities |
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PARALYZING CONGESTION PREDICTED YEAR-ROUND!
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 The #1 reason for building high speed rail
Two studies released recently by the U.S. Travel Association and the Eno Center for Transportation, reveal that infrastructure in America is already struggling to keep up with current air travel demand. Expected growth in passenger volume threatens to overwhelm the system completely, and significantly harm the U.S. economy.
As if the current economic situation is not bad enough, our 2 forms of transportation are rapidly paralyzing the entire nation. This will lower the quality of life in America substantially. While the Travel Association recommends major investment in more aviation, the smarter solution is a major investment in high speed rail. High speed rail delivers very high capacity fast transportation that far exceeds the capacity of roads and airports combined. High speed rail is the only form of transportation not subject to congestion delays. Report | Congestion Relief | Convenience of HSR
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High speed rail delivers!
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Fast transportation - every train, every day.
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