In The News

UK Transport Policy - High Speed Rail

Our review of HS2 raised questions about the accuracy of the passenger demand forecasts used by the DfT and HS2 in the business case and questioned if the proposed project is a good use of public funds.

On June 4 2010 The National Audit Office published their report "Increasing Passenger Rail Capacity" which evaluates the DfT and the Rail Regulators performance in delivering value for money in in recent years. We have prepared an update / additional comments to our original paper instigated by reading the NAO assessment.

We have received a lot of support for our original paper, HS2 Ltd have pointed out two minor errors concerning ticket price escalation and reuse of the WCML, we have not received any other requests for changes, indeed it would appear that many in the Rail Industry, some closely involved in the project, share our concerns.

From our research we believe it is important that along with a) improving rail freight capacity and b) raising the level of electrification of the rail system, both aspects appear to be well below European standards, developing an effective High Speed Rail Network should be a key aspect of a comprehensive Transportation strategy.

Our concern with the specific HS2 project in its current form is that is reminds us of a cross between Concorde and the Millennium dome both were "prestige national projects" that failed to deliver value for money.  Exaggerated demand forecasts, cost escalation, speed and noise along with an eventual very obvious lack of paying customers are the aspects of the "genetic link" that we see in HS2.