Higgins on improved East-West Connectivity: ‘As important to the North as Crossrail is to London’

On 27th October Sir David Higgins published his report Rebalancing Britain: from HS2 towards a national transport strategy, commissioned by the Secretary of State for Transport and the Chancellor. This is the follow-up to his HS2 Plus report of March 2014.  The report can be downloaded here; there’s a supporting report Transport constraints and opportunities in the North of England ; and the accompanying press release is here.

The report’s conclusions are summarised below but, first, let’s dwell upon that highly significant subtitle: ‘from HS2 towards a national transport strategy’. In July 2011 the Friends of the Earth position paper on HS2 which I (Anthony Rae writes) prepared for them said this: ”The proposed commitment [represented by HS2] to expansion of the rail network represents a refreshing change of strategic direction. If this represents a fundamental shift in favour of ‘strategic Rail’ as against ‘strategic Road’ (and also ‘strategic aviation’) then FOE strongly supports this, but it must be embedded within both a long-term national transport policy which gives certainty to this new direction, and a comprehensive expenditure programmes through to 2030, organised around carbon reduction and also contributing to overall sustainability.” emphasis added

Regrettably the FOE national organisation then lost their way on the issue (“…but pumping £32 billion into high speed travel for the wealthy few while ordinary commuters suffer is not the answer” January 2012 ) and were joined in that apparent opposition by other London-based NGOs (such as New Economics Foundation June 2013  and March 2014). What they failed to understand was the potential for HS2 to lead onto ‘HS3’, and so much more. And over the years I’ve never noticed a whisper of criticism from them of the so much larger transport investment budgets that pour into London, including for example Crossrail.

Fortunately, and ironically, a Conservative-led government had a more strategic understanding of long-term sustainability for the UK as a whole and particularly its northern regions.

Summary of Rebalancing Britain recommendations

The strategic ‘Y’ proposal for Phase Two is right. There should be an Eastern leg from Birmingham to Leeds via the East Midlands and South Yorkshire, and a Western leg from Birmingham to Manchester via Crewe. Building both legs is the only way to deliver the strategic reductions in journey times and extra capacity that are needed, and to do so on an equitable basis.
the proposed hubs in the East Midlands and in South Yorkshire are, on balance, the best solutions to deliver the benefits of HS2 to their regions as a whole, and to achieve the best fit with the existing network.
the proposed North West hub should be at Crewe because that is the best way to serve not just the local region, but also provide services into the rest of the North West, North Wales and Merseyside. Its delivery should be accelerated to 2027 instead of 2033 so that the North, and Scotland, begin to feel the benefit of HS2 as early as possible.
by the time Phase Two is complete, the existing station at Leeds will need to be remodelled, so there is a clear need for a fundamental review of the best solution for the city considering growth in existing rail services. The additional passengers that both HS2 and improved East-West services would bring into the city will only add to the capacity problem. Achieving the best outcome will not be easy, and therefore needs to be the subject of further work. We need to find not just the right transport solution, but also one that goes with the grain of the city’s vision for the future of Leeds.
Substantially improved services East-West across the North are not only desirable, but possible. We need to turn the aspiration into a practical plan. At present the journey from Leeds to Manchester takes anything from 48 minutes to over an hour. Initial work by Network Rail suggests that, taking into account current plans and further work, that journey times could be cut to somewhere between 26 and 34 minutes with double the number of trains per hour. That, plus further planned electrification and upgrades, would also reduce the journey time from Liverpool to Leeds from nearly two hours to one hour, and cut thirty minutes off the journeys from Manchester to both Hull and Newcastle. This is as important to the North as Crossrail is to London.
– That, however, should only be the first step in improving East-West connectivity across the North, not just on the railways, but the whole transport system. Currently not only is the rail network poor, the motorway system is increasingly congested. I strongly recommend, therefore, that the Government and local authorities build on the work of the One North report by agreeing a format and timetable for turning its analysis into a practical plan for the future. I also believe that this would be helped enormously if the major local authorities across the North formed a joint body so that they speak with one voice on how to manage the inevitable trade-offs that will be necessary to achieve the overall goal.