UK: The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport has published 10 points setting out what it would like to see following the cancellation of further phases of High Speed 2, which it was ‘deeply disappointed’ by.
CILT recommends:
1. a well-informed independent inquiry should be set up to establish ‘what went so badly wrong’ with HS2. This should be led by the individuals who delivered HS1 on time and under budget, supported by seasoned rail professionals;
2. CILT recommends ‘in the strongest possible terms’ that the alignment of HS2 Phase 2 should be protected;
3. it says ‘without HS2 Phase 2, the West Coast Main Line north of Lichfield will be dysfunctional and cannot provide the much-needed connectivity improvements for the north, Wales and Scotland’;
4. major bottlenecks will have a highly damaging impact on high speed services to Manchester, Liverpool, Scotland and north Wales and on freight;
5. CILT recommends an urgent review of options to resolve WCML constraints, in particular the Colwich – Stafford corridor;
6. The remainder of the £36bn released from HS2 should be spent on infrastructure investment for the long-term benefit of the UK economy and environment, not on short-term revenue items;
7. candidate investment schemes should be prioritised objectively and ranked by their benefit:cost ratio, which should be calculated using an internationally approved cost of carbon to ensure maximum decarbonisation is delivered;
8. CILT says a focus on freight and logistics was noticeably absent from the HS2 announcement, and it wants much greater emphasis on this ‘economically vital’ sector;
9. CILT recommends that the remaining single-track sections on the freight corridor linking the port of Felixstowe with terminals in the Midlands and north should be doubled and the route electrified throughout;
10. another 950 route-km across the UK should be electrified. CILT estimates this would cost around £2bn, and allow about 95% of rail freight to be electrically hauled, with zero carbon emissions.
The decision to axe HS2 beyond the West Midlands ‘will do considerable harm to the economies of the north and Scotland’, said Julian Worth, spokesperson for the CILT Strategic Rail Policy Group, on November 6.
’Instead of investing in the UK’s major infrastructure scheme, a third of the money is to be spent on populist short-term tactical measures which will do nothing to address the nation’s strategic infrastructure needs’, he added.
