Press Notices

09.02.04:
Planning for a high-speed rail network needed now - CfIT advises Government

The Government and the SRA should start planning now for a network of high speed railway lines across the UK, the Commission for Integrated Transport advised ministers today in a new report. Schemes that offer good value for money should be actively pursued.

Passengers, Government and the rail industry are, rightly, focussing their attention on levels of performance on the existing network - and that is the immediate priority. But we also need to be looking ahead.

A network of 200 mph an hour services could slash future journey times between London, Northern England, Scotland, Wales and the South West and has the potential to revitalise the economies and communities they would serve.

A high-speed line could provide up to 220 trains a day, compared with a potential 98 additional trains per day following the West Coast Main Line upgrade. And high-speed trains have nearly 50% more seating capacity than a conventional inter-city train. High-speed rail offers very high passenger capacity - 50% more than a three-lane motorway, at around a third of the time of the equivalent road journey.

Glasgow would be just 3 hours from London and Edinburgh just over two and a half. There would be impressive time savings from London for other cities - Birmingham within 55 minutes, Manchester and Leeds in under one and a half hours and Newcastle two hours. High-speed rail offers the opportunity to link our core cities and to shrink the map of this country.

The most practical routes said the report would be for journeys of between 180 and 360 miles, which allowed trains to compete most effectively with cars and planes. Since the opening of the CTRL in 2003, passenger numbers on Eurostar have grown 15%, capturing significant market share from the airlines.

The Commission advised Ministers that without the new, dedicated high-speed lines there would be major capacity constraints on the inter city routes. Alternatively this could be addressed by higher fares which would be both unfair and drive passengers back on to an already crowded roads network. And the upgrade of the West Coast Main line has shown that resolving capacity constraints on the live network can be very disruptive, time consuming and expensive.

But the report also warns that work needs to be done to reduce the cost of new infrastructure in the UK. It examined overseas projects and looks at how high-speed rail can be delivered cost effectively.

Building lines in phases rather than all at once could produce cost savings of 20% - 30% while a review of the way safety regulations are applied could cuts costs further.

Meanwhile there is scope for substantial savings from project management, planning, design and legal costs which can add up to 25% of costs in the UK compared with just 3% on the Spanish Madrid - Lerida line.

If these cost savings materialise, then the benefits could outweigh the costs by 3 to 1.

Commission Chair Professor David Begg said: "This study demonstrates clearly that high-speed lines are not only desirable in shrinking journey times between main cities but are essential if we are to deal with capacity constraints that are building up on our intercity network. 2015 is a key juncture for us in terms of our capacity limit. But, given the long lead times, the planning needs to start now.

The alternative strategy of pricing passengers off the network would not be acceptable and would run contrary to the Government's transport objectives. High-speed rail will reduce congestion as well as bring environmental and safety gains. Quite sensibly the Government should only bring forward schemes that offer value for money and which will reap economic and social benefits.

"As in the rest of Europe there should be brand new routes which are both cheaper to build and offer extra capacity - as the current lines would stay in service for both passenger and freight markets.

"Other European countries planned their high-speed lines in the 1970s and 1980s. Because of spare capacity on the UK network at that time, high-speed lines could not be justified here.

"However, we are now running out of capacity, which has had an adverse effect on rail performance, and we have run out of time. Other countries take a broader view of the economic and political benefits that new routes can bring - and so should we.

"High-speed lines can reduce the demand for new roads and new runway capacity, are better for the environment and can help bring jobs, inward investment and economic regeneration to the regions they serve.

And any future national road charging scheme would make high-speed rail even more attractive, by increasing rail demand further.

"Our study demonstrated that by using high-speed rail to tackle capacity constraints, by significantly challenging UK infrastructure costs and maximising private sector involvement there are clear and deliverable benefits for both the railway user and the UK economy at large.

"More work needs to be set in train now - not least to see how the private sector can work with the government to deliver these national rewards and to learn the lessons of Europe and Japan. Private sector investment will be vital if we are to realise the potential benefits new high-speed rail lines can bring.

"The message for the Government is be visionary, be bold, cut down on red tape and let the railways have a real chance to show their true potential."

Notes to editors:

1. The CfIT study is available on the CfIT website at: www.cfit.gov.uk/docs/2004/hsr/index.htm.
2. The research was carried out by Steer Davis Gleave.

Return to: High-speed rail index