Fast Forwards: Living in the new age of the train

By Andrew Pakes

Gordon Brown’s commitment this week to high speed rail is the strongest signal yet about how seriously the Government is taking the issue. Not only is high speed rail about improving our transport network, it is also part of a much bigger picture of how we see the future development of the UK and its regions.

To some degree, a political consensus has already emerged across the parties about the need for high speed rail which is no bad thing. Behind the rhetoric, however, the Government has a much clearer picture of the wider benefits that high speed rail can help deliver. As Gordon Brown says in his introduction to SERA’s new pamphlet, Fast Forwards – Labour’s case for High Speed Rail:

“Railways are one of the great Victorian legacies. As Prime Minister, 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 to the 20th Century. Low carbon rail transport is at the core of this mission”.

So why, in the face of widespread public sector spending cuts, would we be asking for such an ambitious and costly scheme? The answer is quite simple – because investment in high speed rail now will accelerate the recovery, reduce inequalities and offer significant social as well as environmental benefits.

It is for these reasons that SERA is launching our new High Speed Rail campaign on Sunday at the Labour conference. Our new pamphlet brings together leading commentators on the high-speed debate, including the Spanish Transport Minister, Council Leaders and Andrew Adonis.

Spain exemplifies the benefits of high speed rail and the political determination of the PSOE under Filippe Gonzalez in the late 1980s to investment in new network despite fierce opposition. Today, the Spanish high speed rail network is core to economic regeneration at a regional level. These benefits are widespread across the developed world, with high speed rail networks being in operation or under construction in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, China, Taiwan and Korea. Even President Obama has outlined plans that would see high speed services in the US.

And where these services are in operation, the trend is the same – passengers are expressing their preference for rail. In France, for instance, the TGV service has seen rail gain up to 70% of the air-travel market. It will also free up the existing rail network by creating whole new lines meaning that in towns like mine, Milton Keynes, will benefit from both high speed access and greater capacity on the existing West Coast Main Line.

And jobs will be generated by the investment. As well as those generated during the construction and operation of the lines, the Northern Way group have estimated that a trans-Pennine connector high speed line from Liverpool to Leeds could boost the North’s economy by £3.5billion., Nationally, the figure could be nearer £10billion a year.

But perhaps most importantly high speed rail has the potential to reduce our impact on the environment significantly. Transport currently contributes more than a quarter of our carbon emissions. Domestic air travel in particular has a worrying forecast of growth – a prediction that must be reversed if we’re to meet the government’s ambitions targets of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emission by 2050. While many argue that halting travel is the only answer, decoupling transport from carbon offers a much more progressive solution. High speed rail must be a part of that progressive solution to climate change.

Fast Forwards: Labour’s case for High Speed Rail will be launched at 5.30pm on Sunday 27th September 2009 in the Buckingham Room, Hilton Metropole Hotel Brighton.

Speakers at the launch event will include Lord Andrew Adonis (Transport Secretary), Will Hutton, Lord Kinnock, Sir Richard Leese (Leader of Manchester City Council), Cllr Mick Henry (Leader of Gateshead Borough Council), Rosie Winterton MP, Andrew Pakes (SERA Chair) and will be chaired by Professor David Begg (chairman of the Northern Way Transport Group).

Copies of Fast Forwards will be downloadable from www.sera.org.uk from midday 27th September.