The government may need to deliberately put people off travelling between Birmingham and Manchester by rail because scrapping HS2’s northern leg is likely to mean trains can take fewer passengers. New HS2 trains will travel to Manchester on existing tracks but they will have less space than current services, according to a report by the public spending watchdog.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said the government could need to manage demand by “incentivising people to travel at different times or to not travel by rail”. The NAO’s report also stated that the previous Conservative government had spent £592m buying up land and property along now-cancelled parts of the route.
Last October, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that sections of the high-speed railway linking Birmingham with Manchester and with the East Midlands would no longer be built. It means that only the stretch between London and the West Midlands will go ahead. New trains built for HS2, however, will run over the entire line.
But the NAO said these trains “may have fewer seats than existing services”, and HS2’s delivery company estimates that capacity between Manchester and Birmingham could be reduced by 17%. The Department for Transport (DfT) is looking at how longer HS2 trains could be used, but existing stations such as Crewe would have to be adapted.
As a result, the NAO said that the DfT “will need to assess options for addressing capacity issues on the west coast”, such as dissuading passengers from travelling by train at certain times – if at all. But the report warned that this may constrain economic growth and increase environmental costs.
Another option would be “improving or adding infrastructure”, but this could be expensive and disruptive.
“It’s long been clear that the Conservatives recklessly mismanaged HS2 and allowed the costs to spiral entirely out of control – but this report lays bare the scale of their mistakes,” Labour’s new Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said.
A spokesperson for the Conservatives said: “As the NAO report makes clear, when we left office there were a number of options under consideration to maximise the benefit of HS2. The new government will decide which of those options to take forward.
Source: BBC
In other news – UK minister reacts to Prince Harry’s announcement about Invictus Games Birmingham
Britain’s Minister for Veterans and People Al Carns has said that Prince Harry’s Invictus Games harness the power of sport to supercharge the recovery and rehabilitation of military personnel and veterans.
In his statement after Harry’s announcement, Al Carns says, “Our exceptional Armed Forces make countless acts of courage and selflessness in their duties and we will always support wounded, injured and sick personnel and veterans. Read more
