No ‘blank cheque’ for HS2, says Eagle

24 Sep 13
Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle has cast further doubt on Labour’s backing for the proposed High Speed 2 rail line, saying the project’s value for money needed to be clear

By Richard Johnstone in Brighton | 24 September 2013

Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle has cast further doubt on Labour’s backing for the proposed High Speed 2 rail line, saying the project’s value for money needed to be clear.

Eagle said the party wanted to support HS2, which will connect London with the north of England, as it could free up space on existing lines for more commuter and freight train services. It is proposed that the ‘Y’-shaped route will open in two stages – from London to Birmingham in 2026, and then onto Manchester and Leeds in 2033.

However, she said the party would not commit to backing HS2 whatever the cost. 

At the June Spending Review, the government announced that total funding available for the line had increased by nearly £10bn to £42.6bn, of which nearly one-third is intended to cover cost overruns.

Eagle said Labour could not offer a ‘blank cheque for any government project’. 

Her comments come after shadow chancellor Ed Balls said yesterday that HS2 had been ‘totally mismanaged’ by the government. He added that it would be ‘irresponsible’ to not take into account the costs of the scheme.

Eagle reiterated that Labour wanted further evidence. ‘As Ed Balls rightly says, we support the idea of a new north-south rail line but, if costs continue to rise – and the value for money cannot be demonstrated – we will have to ask if this is the right priority for £50bn.

‘So I say to David Cameron: get a grip on this project. Get a grip on its budget. And get it back on track.’

Eagle also called for the government to halt plans to re-privatise the East Coast Main Line franchise. The train service has been run by the government-owned Directly Operated Railways since private sector operator National Express gave up its contract in November 2009. The government confirmed in March it would offer the franchise back to the private sector.

Eagle said this was a ‘costly and unnecessary’, as DOR was on course to have returned £800m to the Treasury over its term running the line. Ministers should ‘abandon this costly, unnecessary, ideological, dogmatic, cynical, wrong-headed, vested-interest driven, disastrous privatisation’, she said.

If the line was put out to bids, the bar on DOR submitting a proposal should be lifted, she added. 

‘End the nonsense that means the only rail company in the world barred from bidding is the one that is running it – and doing so well. 

'Even the French, German and Dutch state railways can bid. How completely bizarre that Tory ministers have no problem with a government-run rail service so long as it isn’t British.’

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