Afternoon:
15°c
We won't have enough in the pot for high-speed trains, say Labour
Nicholas Cecil, Deputy Political Editor1 Feb 2011
Labour may shelve plans for a high-speed rail network in Britain after delays in other costly projects including Crossrail, a senior MP admitted today.
Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle stressed that Labour could not guarantee it could find funding for the high-speed line if it wins the next election in 2015.
Labour leader Ed Miliband has voiced support for high-speed rail but Ms Eagle is reviewing the party's transport policy with "nothing ruled in or out".
She told the Standard: "The Tory-led government has delayed the completion of vital rail projects including Crossrail and Thameslink in London, cut new carriages planned by Labour and hit commuters with massive fare increases.
"At the same time they plan to only spend £750million of the £17.5billion cost of the proposed new high-speed line to Birmingham. Labour will next month launch a root and branch review of our transport policy with nothing ruled in or out.
"It would be irresponsible to make cast-iron spending commitments for beyond 2015 before we have listened to the public and come to conclusions about our future priorities."
Her comments threaten to shatter cross-party support for high-speed rail. The Tories accused Labour's rail policy of being "mired in confusion". "Ed Miliband says one thing, Maria Eagle says another," said a Tory source.
He added that high-speed rail would not be affected by delays to the £14.5billion Crossrail project, which has been put back by at least a year until 2018, or Thameslink.
Her remarks may also dismay former Labour transport secretary Lord Adonis who championed a rail system with 250mph trains. It could also re-open the debate over the route through picturesque countryside. Several other routes have been examined, including one which would link it with Heathrow, avoiding north-west London.
This route would largely follow existing lines through Ealing Broadway and Southall to Heathrow before heading to Birmingham and the North.
The preferred route has already been changed by the Government, shifting a tunnel away from Primrose Hill, home to Jude Law, Jamie Oliver and Kate Moss.
Reader views (23)
£500 million per minute saved
£160 million per mile
£54 million cost to each constituency
£1,000 subisidy from every taxpayer.
Are we mad? There are so many other more pressing needs not least other parts of our transport infrastructure. This isn't just a question of the cost but the lost opportnuity to invest in something which provides greater benefit to all of us.
- SteveR, Oxon, 02/02/2011 13:35
Report abuse
@Nigel: Is high-speed rail the best use of scarce money?
Switzerland has the best trains in Europe, but not the fastest. (I don't know if that's a choice they made, or just forced on them by their terrain)
--------------------------------------
@Nigel
For the umpteenth time, HS2 is not about <b>current</b> budgets - serious costs involved with this project are the best part of <b>ten</b> (count 'em) years away! Why do the vast majority of people conflate announcements about future public investment with the present day?
Switzerland does have High Speed Rail, TGVs already run between Paris and Zurich. You may also have heard something about the St.Gotthard Base Tunnel, a multi-billion project to construct high speed rail lines.
High Speed Rail (HSR) is the future for rail as a 21st Century mass passenger transport medium but HSR only works on a pan-European basis as a credible alternative to short-haul intra-European air travel - that modal shift will only happen if the infrastructure investment (in new lines) goes in - that's what HS2 is about; <b>investment for the future!</b>
- Peter Davidson, Alderley Edge, NW England, 02/02/2011 12:33
Report abuse
"The labor party should not worry, after the last 13 years disater of them being in power few intelegent people will vote for them again."
That's the trouble. People will vote Labour no matter what because they've always voted for em.
- Paul, IoD, London, 02/02/2011 10:41
Report abuse
The labor party should not worry, after the last 13 years disater of them being in power few intelegent people will vote for them again.
- Vince London, West London, 02/02/2011 01:51
Report abuse
Ah yes - Angela Eagle's notoriously evil twin Maria.....have no idea why people voted her back in at the last election.
- MS, London, 01/02/2011 23:57
Report abuse
What the hell are they talking about? Labour, fortunately, doesn't have a say in anything at the moment.
- Joe Blow, Wales, 01/02/2011 22:48
Report abuse
Is high-speed rail the best use of scarce money?
I'd have thought it better to invest in longer trains and platforms so existing routes can carry more people, and improving existing signals and track so service reliability improves.
Switzerland has the best trains in Europe, but not the fastest. (I don't know if that's a choice they made, or just forced on them by their terrain)
- Nigel, London, 01/02/2011 17:06
Report abuse
Ah the 'Eagle sisters' the absolute epitome of Labour nepotism. Two utterly useless 'drab looking sisters' representing constituencies in the dear old 'economic powerhouse' of the Liverpool area. Now they really know how to spend taxpayers cash up there in the North West of England and usually with nothing to show for it.
- nick holland, bearsden, 01/02/2011 15:45
Report abuse
@ Richard Branks.
Really Sorry to hear of your impending round of redundancies.
Unfortunately it turns out that the Labour government never actually had the cash to build / refurb all of those buildings, as Anglo points out many were indeed PFI (buy now pay later, and forever thereafter).
You may be interested to know that the bill for the PFI jobs is due in soon and totals somewhere in the region of half a trillion quid.
Thanks new labour, I'll sell the kids off to medical experiments to pay my share on top of the £40k of debt you left every man, woman and child in England with. Socialist morons.
- Daddy, Kensington, 01/02/2011 14:17
Report abuse
"We won't have enough in the pot for high-speed trains, say Labour"
The pot? The tax payers money you mean, treated like a piss pot by Labour.
Shouldn't worry too much about having to make any financial decisions any time soon if I were you ...
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 01/02/2011 14:00
Report abuse
Richard Branks,
you are a bit light on arithmetic.
Most of the expenditure to which you refer was 'PFI' - a way of keeping it 'off the books' and bankrupting us by high interest charges extending over several decades into the future.
PFI is for suckers and Gordo went overboard on it, unfortunately it is still being used but on a much reduced scale.
- Anglo, Sussex England, 01/02/2011 12:44
Report abuse
The money for HS2 HAS NOT gone anywhere because it does not exist yet!!!
HS2 was part of the Green Gauge report looking into the development of High Speed rail beyond HS1 and produced it report at the end of the last parliament.
HS2 was then about long term planning for wheb the WCML reaches capacity in the 2030s and building a high speed alternative.
The Tory led government has seen it as a way of talking about doing something without actually doing anything given the project lays beyond this parliament and so at present no funds exist for it.
As to the delays to Crossrail one reason for this is a change in the order of building the line with tunnelling being done ahead of station building in some places. This means work on the station will start later than previously planned but as the running tunnels will have been built less spoil will need to be taken to the surface and this way can be cheaper to do.
What is needed first is electrification and upgrade of the Midland Main Line thus making better use of existing assets and even electrification of Chiltern Railways out of Marylebone a railway once doomed to closure.
I reckon its time Michael Portillo was put back in charge or even become the Tory Mayoral candidate next year. I am sure Bradshaw would agree to this!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 01/02/2011 12:03
Report abuse
For a start, she will never be in a position to put her claims into practice, as she will be re-shuffled by Balls long before the next election. Yes, I did type that right.
She should stare into her navel and wonder why her previous administration spent so much on outreach officers, unaccountable quangos, civil service pensions, useless and undeliverable military projects, 2 unwinnable wars and bailing out banks.
Then she might consider why a high speed train set wasn't planned in 1997 when her shower came into office, rather than waiting until 2009 when it was obvious they were being kicked out.
Useless doesn't even begin to sum it up.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, 01/02/2011 12:03
Report abuse
Great news. We don't need this HS2 white elephant vanity project. The sooner it's cancelled the better.
- John Buckeridge, London, 01/02/2011 11:57
Report abuse
Well said Richard, this country has need of much building, refurbishment, abd remedial work in both the private and public sectors, just look at the state of the nations road surfaces, in stead of employing the unemloyed to carry out these tasks (and paying taxes) we pay them benefits to stay at home, this is a prime example of the economics of the madhouse.
- Louise LLewelyn Thompson, London (City), 01/02/2011 11:55
Report abuse
A friend of mine was dancing with this guy in Dublin. Half way through the dance he pulls her close and whispers, "your nice but you don't have child bearing hips". My friend replied, "stop worrying, it won't be your baby I'll be carrying!".
So Maria, thanks for the warning, but unless the UK public suffers from collective amnesia at the next general election, I cannot envisage the UK public simply forgetting the Blair/Brown debacle and a decade of economic misrule. So stop worrying!
- Daphne, Brighton, 01/02/2011 11:53
Report abuse
senior MP????
- terry sullivan, morden england, 01/02/2011 11:52
Report abuse
Labour already have plenty of votes in the north of England. Unlike Cameron, they dont have to pledge £34bn on high speed rail trying to find those elusive extra seats to win an outright majority at the next election. "Sorry we are cutting spending on essential services, sorry unemployment is increasing, but vote for Cameron, he will build HS2 to solve the north south divide..."
- Cynic, London, 01/02/2011 11:43
Report abuse
Ed Miliband would be well advised to keep this woman off the TV screen.
She represents a Constituency that is always griping about wanting more government support.
Right now they are griping about 'cuts' saying they have bigger % cuts than anywhere else in the country. Yet, their Formula Grant is 4 times per head what my local authority gets.
They seem to think the rest of us owe them a never-ending-handout. No wonder Ms Eagle has run out of money.
- Anglo, Sussex England, 01/02/2011 11:37
Report abuse
Ted, it went on building 71 new hospitals, and completely refurbishing another 486, building 630 new schools, and refurbishing 2,478 other's, plus other project's that were long overdue, giving work to the company I own, which meant work for my workforce of 160, soon to be unemployed, and drawing a whole host of benefits.
- Richard Branks ( Branks & Son), London, 01/02/2011 11:35
Report abuse
Get the low speed trains running first, before worrying about high speed trains.
- mickinlondon., london, 01/02/2011 11:29
Report abuse
I think Eagle's statement is more than a little misleading. Instead of saying We won't have "enough" money in the pot" she should admit that Brown has seen to it that we have "NO" money in the pot.
- R.F.Yorke, Yorks, UK, 01/02/2011 11:24
Report abuse
Tell us where the money went, Eagle.
- Ted, London, 01/02/2011 11:06
Report abuse
