UK - The 200mph train, a snip at £39bn

[John Ashworth]

The 200mph train, a snip at £39bn

From The Sunday Times
April 5, 2009

Ministers are looking at a new London to Scotland line that could carry double-decker trains and halve journey times

Steven Swinford

LORD ADONIS, the transport minister, is studying plans for a £39 billion high-speed rail network that could see 200mph, French-style TGV trains almost halving journey times between London, northern England and Scotland.

The trains would cut journey times to Manchester to one hour 22 minutes and Glasgow to two hours 42 minutes. Double-deck models carrying up to 545 people will be used to relieve congestion on the busiest parts of the network.

The plans being considered by Adonis are detailed in seven reports released under the Freedom of Information Act.

They were drawn up by Booz Allen Hamilton, a technology consultancy, for the Department for Transport in 2007. The documents include detailed costings, potential routes and an evaluation of the environmental impact.

Adonis said this weekend he believed the reports strengthened the case for a national high-speed network.

“We are looking seriously and urgently at the potential for high-speed rail in the UK,” said Adonis. “This study shows that a high-speed line is a perfectly viable and realistic option.

“Britain invented the railways and exported the technology to the rest of the world. It would be great if we were able to take a lead in high-speed rail technology in the 21st century.”

The government sees high-speed trains as a more environmentally acceptable way of upgrading Britain’s transport infrastructure than expanding domestic flights or the motorway network.

It would also ease train overcrowding. Last year, rail passengers travelled 30.1 billion miles, the greatest distance since the second world war.

The line between London and Manchester is one of the most congested in Britain, and despite a recent £9 billion upgrade, officials at the department believe it will need extra capacity by 2024.

The reports provide the first detailed analysis of how ministers hope to emulate the success of the French rail network. France introduced its first TGV trains in 1981. They run at 200mph but are capable of speeds of up to 357mph. Today, its eight high-speed rail lines carry 94m passengers a year.

The report envisages running double-deck TGV Duplex trains as well as single-deck versions.

The line from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow would cost an estimated £29 billion. Extending the network with a new spur from Birmingham to Leeds, York and Sheffield would entail spending an additional £10 billion.

The final figure is likely to be even higher. The study assumes the line would be built using a combination of upgraded and new lines. The government, however, wants to build entirely new lines. It hopes to secure a mix of public and private funding.

The initial high-speed line from London to the West Midlands would open soon after 2020 and later be extended with branches to northwest England, Scotland and eventually the northeast.

The analysts acknowledge the route is likely to be controversial. They estimate more than 1m people would be affected by high levels of noise. The London-Glasgow line would also pass through five environmentally or historically sensitive areas, including a World Heritage site.

They suggest £2 billion of measures to cut noise and vibrations, along with £1.4 billion of tunnels or diversions to avoid sensitive sites. The government has withheld precise details of the route.

The analysis by Booz Allen Hamilton is being used to underpin work by High Speed Two, a government-backed company bringing together industry experts and senior civil servants.

Sir David Rowlands, its chairman, is due to report to ministers by the end of the year. He has said that a site near Wormwood Scrubs in west London is being considered as a giant rail hub for passengers to switch from the high-speed rail line to Crossrail, the mainline railway being built across London. The hub would connect to the Heathrow Express and indirectly to the Channel tunnel rail link.