.
Is HS2 really what the North needs? My doubts have been growing, and I welcome the government review whatever its underlying motivation.
I originally thought it a good idea, The Japanese and French have had high speed trains for decades, so should we. But that was before the total inadequacy of our local train links in the North became a nightmare last year. The Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, insists this isn’t an either or but both game, involving HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail. But is that realistic? HS2 could cost £100bn. Is there really going to be enough public money to invest in our trans Pennine and other local connections?
If the government does cut back or cancel HS2, the saved budget must be spent on northern infrastructure.
Burnham also argues that plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail partly depend on integration with HS2. I’m sure the plans can be redrawn to cope with a cancellation of the project.
Other doubts have crept into my mind. Isn’t HS2 just going to become a talent drain to London? Won’t the best be attracted to that great economic engine that will remain London?
Then there is new technology. I much prefer face to face meetings, but new technology will shortly offer all sorts of new ways of “virtual” meetings that will come naturally to the next generation of tech savvy business people. For them the idea of time consuming, expensive rail travel will seem like something out of the arc.
There is a suggestion that the scheme could be pared back so it would terminate at Birmingham. This would clearly be unacceptable to the North, although it would satisfy the Tory mayor of the West Midlands. Another option is to end the line at Crewe. Cheshire and Staffordshire local authorities and businesses have invested their hopes in developing a major hub here, but it is not central enough to the North as a whole.
This isn’t a black and white issue for me. I had the privilege of hosting forums for the rail engineering industry a few years ago. I was impressed with their plans to invest in apprenticeships for the young engineers that would be working on this project in the next two decades. Let’s hope there is plenty for them to do on the trans Pennine routes.
There is also the argument that £7bn has already been spent, including homes already being bought up in Cheshire. But I suppose you don’t throw good money after bad.
There will be a big row if it is scrapped, or even scaled down as questions are asked about our commitment to major infrastructure spending. It will also reinforce the view that politicians can never be relied upon to see through projects that stretch beyond one election cycle.
We will also be left with the West Coast stretched to capacity and requiring another disruptive upgrade in the not too distant future.
On balance I think I would cancel on condition that northern transport investment is given a huge investment. No ifs or buts, Mr Johnson, you know the phrase.
Category: HS2
QUESTIONS OVER HS2 AND FRACKING.
…BUT FIRST THAT ISSUE.
I am going to leave Brexit alone this week except to say I haven’t changed my view that Theresa May’s game is to run the clock down, rely on a last-minute concession by the EU and get her deal over the line. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn also wants to leave the EU, without being responsible for the “Tory Deal” damage that will ensue.
Tory and Labour Remainer MPs are being played for dupes, their strategy is confused and their agonising embarrassing; as is the continued speculation about a breakaway centre party. If it is to have any credibility, it won’t derive from London cocktail parties where they come up with the idea of JK Rowling becoming leader.
FUTURE OF HS2.
I did some work facilitating meetings of the talented rail engineers planning this massive scheme and shared their enthusiasm for it. It was a huge mistake to associate it with high speed when the real justification is that the West Coast mainline is at capacity for passenger and freight. However, Britain was at last going to match the French and Japanese in fast rail.
I would still like HS2 to go ahead but the daily misery being faced by passengers commuting in the North of England has forced me to conclude that the government may need to pause HS2 to invest massively on rail in the North. I don’t just mean connecting the big cities with Northern Powerhouse Rail but doing something about the chaos on lines between places like Flixton to Urmston highlighted on TV this week.
Transport for The North’s investment plan, recently revealed, should get urgent approval from however is going to replace the hapless Chris Grayling when he is removed as Secretary of State for Transport.
As I say I would like both projects to go forward, but the benefits of HS2 won’t be seen in the North until the 2030’s, whilst urgent investment in local rail would see improvements much sooner.
I acknowledge the improvements now coming on the Preston to Manchester link, but progress has been slow and the investment programme across the North needs a rocket boost to investment.
It is not acceptable for a heavily pregnant woman to have to miss three trains because of overcrowding on short formed services
GOVERNMENT ENERGY POLICY.
Again, I must begin with a transparency notice, I have done webcast work for Lancashire fracking firm Cuadrilla.
I have found the government’s response to developments in the nuclear and gas industries in recent weeks very interesting.
The collapse of plans for three nuclear power plants because of the withdrawal of Japanese investment did not send ministers into tailspin.
Justified demands by Cuadrilla for the lifting of earth tremor restrictions at their Preston New Road fracking site in Lancashire have been refused along with permission to drill at all at nearby Roseacre Wood.
Meanwhile the cost of renewable energy is plummeting. It suggests the government are pivoting to green energy solutions and it could mean difficult times for our nuclear and fracking companies.
Follow me @JimHancockUK
RAIL IN THE NORTH:WHAT DO THE PEOPLE WANT?
UP THE JUNCTION
The travelling public of the North deserve a proper say on what they want from their rail services.
This week we’ve had more announcements from on high about HS2, and backing for HS3 from Manchester to Leeds. Sir David Higgins, Chairman of High Speed Two Ltd is an excellent man but who is he talking to before he makes this pronouncements? City region leaders but is that enough? Not if you look at the rows that have broken out across the North in the wake of Sir David’s announcement.
Why is Liverpool being left unconnected from HS2 and HS3? Where should the stations be located in Leeds and Sheffield? On the very day eyes were focused on what will be happening in 2027, there were protests about current services between Lancaster and Barrow. And fundamentally whilst one must respect the overwhelming view of city region bosses that HS2 is good for the North, there are the doubters who believe it will just make it easier to work in Borisland (the South East).
So how do we solve the democratic deficit? Sir David himself calls for northern cities to speak with one voice forming a new body called Transport for the North. The problem is Sir David not everybody in the north lives in the city regions. We need an elected Council of the whole North to allow the people a chance to formulate policies on rail, the economy, the environment etc.
CHESHIRE DYNAMO.
Michael Jones will be a happy man following the announcement that Crewe is to be an HS2 hub rather than Stoke. The leader of Cheshire East council takes no prisoners in his drive to bring investment and jobs to his authority. Indeed he may harbour ambitions to lead the whole of Cheshire. He recently called for a unitary authority to be restored for the county. I understand the demand did not go down well with his near namesake Cllr Mike Jones, the leader of Cheshire West and Chester and a leading figure in the Local Government Association. Conservative Party rules may have been breached.
It is an unfortunate spat between the Tory politicians but Cheshire is fortunate to have two leaders who, in their different ways bring good leadership to the county.
LABOUR PARTY CENTRALISATION.
The complaint by the outgoing leader of Labour in Scotland that the party treated her organisation as a branch office had me reflecting on the party’s organisation in the North.
When I started as a journalist in the seventies the North West Labour Party was headed up by a fearsome gent by the name of Paul Carmody. He was master of all he surveyed in the region and had no fear of Prime Ministers. He told Harold Wilson where to go when the PM objected to Carmody’s plans to change the boundaries of his Huyton constituency and berated Jim Callaghan for being late for a factory visit. Regional officials should be given back some of those powers as they know what’s going on in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
OUTSTANDING BROADCASTING.
Brave Huddersfield doctor Geraldine O’Hara is reporting every day on the Today programme about her experiences treating Ebola patients in Africa.
Her reporting is of the highest standard as she vividly describes her life amongst those suffering from this dreadful disease. She gives us a full picture of the tragedy but also the rare moments of joy as some patients recover.
Although she will not seek it, I hope her reports are acknowledged by multiple awards in due course.
HS2: THE LAST STRAW FOR BALLS?
Ed Balls is becoming a real liability to the Labour Party. His close association with Gordon Brown was one of the reasons why Ed Miliband didn’t appoint him Shadow Chancellor when he became leader three years ago. It’s often forgotten now that Alan Johnson was Ed’s first Shadow Chancellor.
Balls gloomy forecasts about the economy are now seen as over pessimistic. His hasty action, when Children’s Secretary, in sacking Haringey Social Services Director Sharon Shoesmith has led to a massive pay off this week. While that news was coming through, angry Labour MPs told the new Shadow Transport Secretary Mary Creagh that Balls should stop messing about with the HS2 project. This is the issue that is set to be the first big test of the Miliband-Balls relationship.
I met Ed Balls in Manchester last week and tried to find out if the negative vibes he had been sending out about this vital rail project for the North was just about keeping costs down or the start of Labour’s disengagement with the project as a matter of principal. Balls told me it was the former, but then failed to reassure me that even if spending was kept within current figures, Labour’s support was guaranteed.
That’s been the problem in recent weeks. Balls has been sending out signals that its not just the summer cost increases that he’s worried about, but that he might like to use the money on other things if he gets into power.
Then there was the removal of Halewood MP Maria Eagle from her job as Shadow Transport Secretary. Labour sources tell me she was “incandescent” at not being told about Balls Brighton conference remarks about HS2.
The leaders of Leeds and Manchester councils received high praise from Transport Secretary Patrick McLouglin for their support for HS2 at a conference in Manchester this week. When the city’s leader Sir Richard Leese joined the minister on the platform I asked the councillor for his assessment of what Ed Balls was up to.
Leese claimed that Mary Creagh was as keen on HS2 as Maria Eagle, although hours later Creagh was parroting Balls heavily caveated views to that meeting of Labour MPs. However the council leader went on to tell me that it would be “irresponsible” for his party to go into the next election opposed to HS2.
It has even been suggested that Balls has been getting some grief from his wife Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. They have neighbouring constituencies in West Yorkshire. HS2 is planned to run close to the community of Altofts in her Normanton. Pontefract and Castleford constituency and 100 people turned up at a meeting to discuss it with her. I mentioned this to Mr balls who said I’d been staying up too late reading the wrong articles.
Reports suggest Balls may not come off the fence till next spring or even closer to the General Election. This is irresponsible. Doug Oakervee, the outgoing chairman of HS2 Ltd confirmed to me at the Manchester conference that all party consensus was vital to potential investors.
Ed Miliband should tell Mr Balls to issue a statement backing HS2 if the current budget is kept to. If Balls resists he should be sacked. Labour has suffered before when its leader refused to deal with a troublesome Chancellor.
There are a number of potential successors. Two, Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna and Shadow Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves were at a Downtown Leeds event recently and were very impressive by all accounts.