UK: Gordon Brown commits to high-speed rail

[John Ashworth]

Gordon Brown signals commitment to high speed rail

Prime minister counters Tory policy with plan to emulate Victorian legacy of investment

* Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 September 2009 23.14 BST

Gordon Brown will this weekend give his strongest backing to high speed rail, paving the way for Labour to make a general election manifesto commitment to deliver a transformation of Britain's railways.

In an attempt to outflank the Tories, who promised last year to build a £20bn high speed network, Brown will raise the prospect of emulating the Victorian rail-building boom.

Brown will declare in a pamphlet, to be launched at the Labour conference in Brighton on Sunday, that high-speed rail could play an important role in helping to lower carbon emissions without jeopardising economic growth.

"I am excited by the role that high-speed rail could play in a low carbon future," the prime minister writes. "High-speed rail would provide a fast, low carbon network linking the nations and regions of the UK."

The intervention by the prime minister is a boost for Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, who believes that laying the basis for a high-speed rail network in Britain is his most important challenge.

The government announced in January, when it decided to press ahead with a third runway at Heathrow airport, that it would establish a company to make a study into the feasibility of building a new high-speed network. Named High Speed Two (the link from St Pancras to the Channel tunnel is known as High Speed One), this will examine options for a new line from London to the West Midlands. It will also examine options to extend the line to cities in the north.

Brown will make clear that having just one high-speed line in Britain is inadequate for the 21st century. "As a country we need to now move further, faster. We must show how we are going to be part of the high speed rail revolution sweeping across the world."

The prime minister will say that Labour hopes to leave a legacy to rival the railways built by the Victorians. "I am determined that we meet our contemporary challenges by investing in the infrastructure that will endow future generations, just as the Victorians left a legacy of investment for the 20th century."

Adonis, a passionate rail enthusiast who made a well publicised journey across large parts of the network earlier this year, is frank about how Britain lags behind its nearest neighbour. France has more than 400 high speed TGV trains across 1,100 miles of new high-speed lines linking the English Channel to the Mediterranean, and more are planned. Britain has one such line of 68 miles linking London to the Channel tunnel.

Describing high-speed rail as a "no brainer", Adonis cites Barack Obama's complaint that it is "happening elsewhere, not here [in the US]". Adonis writes: "Well it's not happening here in Britain, either, apart from the short line from London to the Channel tunnel.

"There is no reason why we can't do this; this is Britain, the country that invented the railways and the country already has a state-of-the-art high-speed line even if it only 68 miles long and doesn't actually connect any of Britain's major cities."

The strong language from Brown and Adonis means that Labour and the Tories are both likely to go into the election pledging to build high-speed lines. The Tories are planning to build a link between London, Birmingham and Leeds at a cost of £15.6bn to the taxpayer between 2015 and 2027.

A further £4.4bn would be paid by the private sector. The Tories say their plans are affordable because they would be funded out of the general rail budget.

Labour will make a decision when it receives the report from High Speed Two next year.