5 February 2012
The following letter was published in the Warrington Guardian on Thursday February 2nd:
WARRINGTON South MP David Mowat claims there is a muddle over the proposed new high speed rail link between London and Birmingham
and he is right - his.
He says that 50,000 new jobs will be created by the project. Most of these will be construction jobs. At a cost for the project of £32 billion (in the unlikely case that the project will not go over budget) that is £640,000 per job. The same jobs could be created at a much lower cost by upgrading and electrifying the existing railways.
If jobs could be created by increasing the speed of trains then we would already have seen these as a result of bypasses and faster trains on the East Coast Main Line.
Doncaster is, sadly, not famous for its vigorous economy and thousands of new jobs created by improved rail services.
Future extensions of the project - the so-called HS3, 4 and 5 - will also be very unlikely to stop in Warrington.
He says the new trains will mean shorter journey times for commuters. The gain in travel time will be the 20 minutes saved from London to Birmingham. Hardly a significant saving on a journey between London and Glasgow that is four-and-half hours.
He says that the line will significantly reduce the number of car journeys and short haul domestic flights but this will only happen if train fares can match the fares of air and motor travel.
All the current indications are that the high speed rail will be a high cost travel option.
What would reduce car journeys and flights is making train journeys affordable and comfortable, not adding another unaffordable rail link while letting the present system deteriorate.
There is no muddle from Greens over this project - most oppose it for very sensible economic and environmental reasons.
STEPH DAVIES Leader of Warrington Green Party
Warrington and Halton Green Party RSS Feed