Posted 24th July 2024 | 5 Comments
HS2 a ‘shambles’, campaigners claim, while Tories are blamed for ‘reckless’ mismanagement
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Transport secretary Louise Haigh has criticised the Conservatives’ management of HS2, in the wake of a report from the National Audit Office which warns that capacity between London and Manchester will be reduced rather than increased because the trains planned for HS2, which will continue north of Birmingham on the conventional network, may have fewer seats than the Pendolinos they will replace.
The report says it may be necessary to encourage people ‘to travel at different times or to not travel by rail’, although it concedes ‘this may constrain economic growth in the region over the long term’.
One alternative would be longer trains, but these would need ‘additional works at existing stations such as at Crewe or Preston’.
The station at London Euston would have six platforms rather than ten, because there will be fewer high speed trains.
The report concludes that it will cost £100 million to close down the work on HS2 north of Birminghan, which was cancelled last October, and urges the DfT and HS2 Ltd to ‘reset the programme successfully to avoid repeating past failures’. It says ‘they will need to be clear on what benefits they want from the programme now.’
Transport secretary Louise Haigh says in a tweet on X that: ‘The Tories recklessly mismanaged HS2 and allowed the costs to spiral out of control. This report lays bare the sheer scale of Conservative incompetence. We won’t make the same mistakes. We’re assessing the books and will set out next steps in due course.’
Meanwhile the charity Campaign for Better Transport says HS2 has become ’a complete shambles’.
Silviya Barrett of the CBT said: ‘At a time when we need to encourage more people to take the train, it beggars belief that the public might be discouraged to travel with even higher fares and fewer seats.
‘The severely curtailed HS2 project has now turned into a complete shambles that needs to be urgently addressed.
‘For the sake of current and future generations, the Government must consider the best way to expand rail capacity and improve connectivity from Manchester to central London as originally intended, whether high speed or not.’
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
Neil Palmer, Waterloo
It would seem eminently sensible to immediately stop the sale of any lands purchased for HS2 and announce (at the very least) that phase 2a to Crewe WILL be built. Meanwhile serious discussions/research should take place on whether phase 2b should also be revived, at the very least to the WCML junction just south of Wigan. As for the (even if the branch off to Manchester Airport and Manchester, maybe there could be cost savings in reducing the designed linespeed. AND Manchester Piccadilly needs to be an underground station allowing through traffic, NOT a terminus (one of the most ridiculous decisions of phase 2b).
And of course let's not forget that without the section from Old Oak Common to Euston the whole thing is going to be an underused white elephant, like Montreal's Mirabel airport.
david C smith, Bletchley
There exists a challenge of integrating what is left of HS2 with the WCML north of Lichfield, for the benefit of London to Manchester ( and Liverpool ?) passenger service.
This seems to beg a question regarding services from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh. The existing HS2 can still offer an overall time saving for trains to Manchester / Liverpool, but not to Scotland , where any gains south of Lichfield would be more than cancelled due to the use of dedicated , non - tilt trains.
At the same time, bringing the infrastructure up to HS2 speed standards over the northern two - thirds of the WCML would be very expensive. Would an alternaive be to serve the Scottish Central Belt from London on an East Coast basis , which would also serve , en route , Tyneside, Teesside and West Yorkshire ? These intermediate connurbations might vary in terms of overall benefit / cost, but if Glasgow and Edinburgh times could be brought down to around 3 to 3 1/4 hours of London , a whole new day - return market might result. The current ECML has already some stretches able to support 150 mph ( with new signalling), whilst slower parts could be bypassed with new "cut offs".
John Porter , Leeds
The National Audit Office warning, that capacity between London and Manchester will be reduced rather than increased, because trains planned for HS2, north of Birmingham may have fewer seats than the Pendolinos they will replace, illustrates a project that is out of control and too rigidly specified.
HS2 could have approached the rolling stock suppliers and discussed the feasibility of changing the last few HS2 units to 10 or 6 car length to avoid that. 10 coaches with one unpowered extra coach wouldn’t be that much slower than 8 car units nor would 6 cars with one fewer powered coach.
Chris Jones-Bridger, Buckley Flintshire
How not to manage a major infrastructure project of significant national importance. Having had cross party support & expected to construction phase expected to span the timespan of several governments the question remains why the viability was ultimately sabotaged by the actions of the former prime minister seemingly without informed input from the industry professionals.
Both the incoming government and the industry strategists are now faced with a significant challenge of integrating what remains of HS2 with existing WCML infrastructure. This will be especially challenging as historically the northern sections of WCML suffered cutbacks investment when previous upgrades faced budget challenges. Just look at the patch & mend to Stockport area signalling that still soldiers on to this day.
Michael T., Reading
WHY is the Land entering the SALE Process?
It is already owned. If it is Safe Guarded (Protected)... even IF Labour miss this opportunity to INVEST in Infrastructure... a future government or Regional Governments would have the land 'at the shovel ready' to start construction of the rest of HS2 and expand to HS3, HS4, HS...10, 20, 30...
Proper High Speed Railway connecting all urban conurbations in UK, Eire, BeNeLux/North France with no two being more than 2.5 hours apart.
STOP this SALE now. You have the number of MPs to do whatever you want. JFDI!
You won the Election so DO something that Emulates China in Infrastructure Construction Projects so we can Grow our economy out of the Dire Mess state from the Tory R APE of the UK Nations for their own financial gain.