High speed rail hits the buffers in Brum

How amusing to see the very silly post from John Prescott this afternoon, trying to persuade us all that high speed rail “can only be delivered” by Labour.

This follows of course from the publication of a proposal for a high speed route which will stretch all the way from London to… Birmingham.

Labour have continually fudged the question of why they support high speed rail. There is no shortage of reasons – business connectivity, economic growth, scrapping domestic flights to cut CO2 emissions, and so on.

The trouble is they can’t all be true.

“Connectivity” will only increase if rail complements aviation rather than replacing it. Emissions will only be cut if the reverse is true. Domestic flights will only be cut if we’re squeezing the airports at the same time, not building a third runway at Heathrow.

With the choice of a route to Birmingham, and extensions further north only likely years or decades later, the game is up. The train service between London and Birmingham is already well below the “magic” three hour mark which it is argued will prompt the switch to rail. The number of flights between the cities is of course tiny. This is about adding capacity, plain and simple. Emissions from aviation plus emissions from high speed rail does not add up to make a cut.

Labour have given up the pretence of an environmental justification for this project, which is a disgrace given that a properly designed Scotland-London service could help make short haul aviation obscelete.

Not that I have a huge amount of sympathy for anyone who thinks that their attendance at that London meeting is so utterly crucial, but still not quite important enough to spend four and a half hours on the train. Any government that wanted to shift those journeys out of the skies could do so right now; all they need is a vaguely rational rail fare structure and the nerve to start squeezing the airlines.

That’s an approach I’m sure won’t be “delivered” by Labour, Tories, Liberals or Nats.

1 Comment

1. In fact, if you were looking at this from an emissions/modal shift point of view, then logically you would start the first phase between Edinburgh/Glasgow (actually Inverness/Abedeen) and Manchester- that would have the biggest impact on reducing our reliance on flights.

   Comment by Stuart — March 11, 2010 @ 9:04 pm