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A HIGH-SPEED rail link between London, Birmingham and Manchester could be built for £6 billion if a "bargain basement" approach is taken to construction, experts claim today.
A report by the Research Group suggests the cost of the High Speed Two route proposed by the Labour regime - between £15.8 billion and £17.4 billion -could be cut by half.
The group said huge savings could be made if the UK were to use types of trains and track already in operation on the Continent, and if only three stations were built - one in each city.
The London terminus of "High Speed Light" would be at Old Oak Common, north of Wormwood Scrubs, to let passengers interchange with Crossrail to and from Heathrow. The other stations would be at Birmingham and Manchester airports. The cost of these stations is not included in the £6 billion price.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the report was a "welcome contribution to the debate" but its ideas, such as an interchange at Old Oak Common, are unlikely to be adopted. This is because the Lib-Con coalition has asked Lord Mawhinney, a former Tory transport secretary, to investigate extending High Speed Two direct to Heathrow.
Members of the Research Group include Carphone Warehouse founder David Ross and Sir Andrew Foster, a former chairman of the Audit Commission. They warn the rail system will be in "crisis" by 2020 because of surging demand - the tracks now carry more than 1.3 billion passengers a year.
They call for High Speed Two to be developed in a piecemeal fashion, akin to the motorway network. Construction could start in 2015, two years earlier than planned, and finish by 2027.
The route should be built "as simply as possible, with essential facilities only", and without any requirement to overlap with the existing network. "Smaller scale, manageable projects ... can be set up with good financial discipline and learning from international experience," the report says. "UK costs are high and need to be brought down to international benchmarks. We view this project as the most effective way of getting high-speed rail started - High Speed Light as it were."
Consultation on High Speed Two is due to begin in autumn. It would carry 250mph trains and journey times between London and Birmingham would fall by about 30 minutes. Euston station would be rebuilt and several hundred homes in Regent's Park and Primrose Hill face demolition.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: "Ministers are now urgently considering the options."
Reader views (10)
It would be one thing to run a preview service from Birmingham Airport to Old Oak Common whilst both of the more expensive city ends were still under contruction.
To leave that as the route would be very silly. So silly that I'm tempted to send a photo cf Graham Chapman in a Army uniform.
- Alan Griffiths, Forest Gate, LONDON, 06/06/2010 20:57
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How many safety features will be removed to make this saving?
- bobby, berks, 03/06/2010 12:04
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It is either BUILT or NOT BUILT!
HST 2 should be built with enthusiasm and courageous vision.
It should not be treated as a 'down-and-out'.
Heathrow should be an integral part of the route.
To plan for a Near Station-LESS Line, precludes Huge-Swathes of the Population being able to use the service.
Beeching CUT-OUT so many rail 'Feeder-Lines' that many travellers, no longer have a railway anywhere near them.
Consequently, the roads and motor-ways are jammed 'nose-to-tail'.
1960s Transport Minister, the Ernest MARPLES of MARPLES-RIDGWAY M1 Motor-way Construction Company, assisted Dr Beeching in the decimation of British Railways.
BILL,London - THAT was a Humdinger of a Vanity-Project!
They both SAVAGED the RAILWAYS, resulting in the CLOSURE of ONE-THIRD of Britain's RAILWAY-NETWORK.
- Francisco CROWDY, S W 3, 02/06/2010 20:41
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So how is wasteing 3 to 4 hours getting between to and from these station High Speed? You can already make a faster journey to Birmingham using Chiltern Railways from Marylebone and once Evergreen 3 is complete it will be even faster using diesel trains!!
It appears we have gone from the best Transport Secretary in Lord Adonis rail has ever had to a bunch of idiots who have'nt the faintest idea what using railways is about.
Railways are for getting from city centre to city centre in the shortest possible time and have nothing to do with airports which are for safety reasons located miles from where people want to go.
I also note that the Tory department for mis-information is at work for the only properties that face demolition are next to Euston Station and consist of a council estate and old industrial building passed their sell bye daye. At Primrose Hill the line will do what many other lines already do in this area and that is pass in a tunnel underground and most certainly not a full speed as wrongly reported in an earlier article.
It seems the country is in for a rough ride with the idiots now in control who have'nt the faintest idea to run a hornby train set let alone a real railway!!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 02/06/2010 20:35
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The London hub should be in Heathrow, not in some dump of an old railway yard. No-one who connects from a long flight will want to connect to an unreliable shuttle service before getting on the HS service.
But they've got it right about the number of stations - less is more.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, 02/06/2010 17:34
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So they have realised that spending £17.4 billion on a High Speed Rail Line to Birmingham is never going to happen, and now they are trying to bodge up an "on the cheap" version?
I wonder how Crossrail will cope with an extra 500,000 passengers per day - the projection for usage of the High Speed Rail Line to Birmingham.
- Richard, Earls Court, 02/06/2010 16:36
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This money should be spent on the existing transport system, not on some politician's vanity project. Who is going to be able to afford to use this High Speed Rail Link anyway?
- Bill, London, 02/06/2010 15:42
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£6bn excluding the cost of stations or trains.... What sort of a railway doesnt have stations or trains?
- Sarah, London, 02/06/2010 14:26
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1. £6bn = £6 thousand million. Doesnt sound like bargain basement to me.
2. It is hardly "high speed" if you have to get to Wormwood Scrubs to get on it.
3. As it doesnt go to Heathrow, the third runway will have to come back onto the agenda.
I think the National Express Research Group must be getting desperate to suggest this.
- Belinda, London, 02/06/2010 13:35
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When I was at school - and it was a long time ago - half of 'between 15.8 and 17.4' was between 7.9 and 8.7, so where does 6bn come in?
- Paul, London, 02/06/2010 12:48
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