HS2 works should wait Airport Commission report

8 Jul 13
The government has been urged to halt work on the development of the High Speed 2 rail line until it has decided on the future of airport capacity in the southeast of England.

By Richard Johnstone | 8 July 2013

The government has been urged to halt work on the development of the High Speed 2 rail line until it has decided on the future of airport capacity in the southeast of England.

A report published by the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank today said the current ‘silo approach’ of developing the proposed high-speed link from London to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester could hit economic growth.

Preparatory work on the route of the line should stop until the Airport Commission, which is examining the case for new runways and airport connections, has reported. This is expected to be in the summer of 2015.

If the commission, chaired by former Financial Services Authority chair Sir Howard Davies, recommended expanding Heathrow and adding a station to HS2, a pause would ensure the route could be altered, the think-tank said.

The report authors – Jock Lowe, former chair of the UK Flight Operations Director Group, and Mark Bostock, who proposed the High Speed 1 rail line route – said continuing with current plans could increase costs.

Their report, Double up on Heathrow, also called for Heathrow to be expanded by increasing the length of existing runways and splitting them in two. It would be ‘unfortunate’ if the HS2 plans had to be adapted after the Airport Commission’s report, the report said.

‘The High Speed Rail Preparation Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, seeks authority for unspecified sums of public monies to continue work on HS2,’ it said.

‘The uncertainty over the future of Heathrow provides a compelling reason to halt further expenditure on HS2 – the largest investment of public monies in a single project ever envisaged – until air and rail strategies can be considered together.’

Without a more holistic approach, there was a ‘grave danger’ of further indecision and debate about connectivity that would harm the economy, they added.

Today’s report also warned that plans to build an entirely new airport in the southeast of England, as proposed by London Mayor Boris Johnson, would cost as much as £65bn and require taxpayer funding. By contrast, Heathrow could be expanded for as little as £5bn, and would be privately funded, according to the report.

A High Speed 2 station at the airport would form the key element of a new ‘Heathrow Hub’ transport interchange, with stations also on Crossrail and the Great Western lines, and easy access to the M25 motorway. This could be constructed for around £5bn of taxpayer support, the report concluded.

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