High Speed Rail essential for the North's economic growth and regeneration

23 February 2010

The Northern Way has today called for the government to take into account the importance of a national high speed rail network for economic growth in the North when finalising its March High Speed Rail White Paper.

Speaking at the New Civil Engineer and Infrastructure Journal conference on 'The Future of High Speed Rail in the UK.' John Jarvis, Northern Way transport director, said:

"The Northern Way's analysis shows that agglomeration benefits through better city-to-city and business-to-business connectivity could add up to £13bn to the case for a national high speed rail network and £5bn of this would be in the North. Our work also shows that there are further benefits from how high speed rail would support wider economic regeneration and getting more people into employment that haven't yet been taken into account. This could add another £5bn to the North's economy. A high speed rail network will help bridge the North-South economic divide."

"We need a high speed rail network that links London with the North's City Regions on each side of the Pennines. Our work also shows that a trans-Pennine link in the longer term would add significantly to the North's economy. A high speed rail network will transform the North's international competitiveness, lead to a more equitable spread of wealth across the country and contribute to carbon reduction as well."

"The North needs better links to London, Heathrow and Europe through the Channel Tunnel, but importantly we also need faster links between the North's city regions. That's what a high speed network will deliver in boosting the North's economic growth."

"We've shared our research with HS2 and with Lord Adonis and look forward to the government's High Speed Rail White Paper in March."

Two reports for the Northern Way - one by Steer Davies Gleave High Speed Rail and Agglomeration Benefits and one by the University of Leeds's Institute for Transport Studies Strengthening the Assessment of Transport's Wider Impacts on the Economy are published today.

Using Department for Transport methodology the Steer Davies Gleave looks at the agglomeration benefits of a national high speed rail network comprising east coast and west coast lines with a trans-Pennine connection. Benefits are expressed in Present Value terms over a sixty year appraisal period. These benefits are in addition to those from faster and less crowded journeys.

The Institute for Transport Studies looks at the theoretical case for regeneration gains from transport investment along with case studies. It concludes that there is a theoretical case for Regeneration Wider Impacts and from case study work identifies that for investments such as high speed rail they could be very substantial, adding as much as 38% to the conventional benefits of a high speed rail network.

On 16th September 2009 the Northern Way published its position statement on high speed rail Transforming our Economy and our Connectivity: High Speed Rail for the North. This called for a two line high speed network with one line linking London with the North West and Scotland and a second line linking London with Yorkshire and the North East. The lines should be linked by a trans-Pennine connection.