Opinion Delivering the goods Chris MacRae
HS2 is about passengers, not freight says Chris MacRae. Any benefits that could be derived are conditional upon the delivery of a number of other factors
R
enewed media and public interest of late in the plans for High Speed 2 linking London with the Midlands and North
of England (though controversially not Scotland, at least not yet, or not this side of a possible ‘yes’ vote in the Independence Referendum cynics might suggest) have been all about the scheme’s passenger, connectivity and business benefits etc. While it is absolutely correct that decisions about the scheme are based on these criteria as they are the reasons why such a scheme has any merit, there are issues for freight that do need to be remembered. HS2, whatever its merits or otherwise,
is a scheme to build a passenger railway for passenger trains to bring passenger benefits in terms of connectivity, economic inclusiveness etc. Debates about the efficacy of the scheme have to focus upon its ability or otherwise to deliver these. Is not this just a statement of the
obvious? Yes, of course it is, but given the tendency for politicians and others to inject what we might term ‘benefits creep’ into statements about grand schemes of public works, it is important to remember freight’s place in this project: it does not have one; simple as. There is no direct benefit to freight as HS2 will not take freight trains. That is why FTA does not support or oppose the scheme as it is a passenger scheme that stands or falls on its merits or lack of as that: it is not about freight. Yet politicians and others do like
to make associations of benefits for freight. And there are potential benefits for freight that could come from building HS2, but they are derived and consequential benefits, with their realisation conditional upon the delivery of a number of other factors. The building of a new high speed
(passenger) link between London and Birmingham, then in a Y shape to
Manchester and Leeds will, in theory, remove existing inter-city passenger train services from the southern part of the West Coast Main Line (WCML). So, the theory goes, this means consequential freed up capacity and more train paths for freight on the southern part of WCML. Given that route’s importance as a link from southern ports via North London Line and from Southampton to WCML to Liverpool and Manchester intermodal freight terminals (and beyond), this is surely good news? Yes, but…translating express passenger train paths into slower freight train paths does not automatically translate into a 1:1 ratio.
Also, a concern is that when the
civic leaders of towns along the ‘classic’ WCML realise the danger (and it’s fairly certain they already will have done) of their towns becoming backwaters off the new High Speed route, they will clamour for more train services to link them to London so they don’t lose out to Birmingham etc on HS2 becoming an extension of Greater London. Therefore, unless there are guarantees for freight of securing use of the released capacity on the southern part of WCML, then the potential derived benefit for freight could fail to materialise.
Greater concerns further north But, further north on the WCML lie greater concerns for freight. Since HS2 will not (at least initially) be going to Scotland but terminating in the Midlands and North of England, there will inevitably be impetus for some trains to run on off HS2 to/from Scotland and for more connecting services between HS2’s northern terminus and Glasgow/ Edinburgh. And here lies the rub: for unlike the southern WCML that is a four track railway with an Up Fast, Up Slow, Down Fast and Down Slow line configuration, the northern WCML is a two track railway…and it climbs over Shap
November 2013 Page 37
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