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Housing Seminar: Partnerships with the Public Sector – Avoiding the pitfalls
Thu 31 May 2012
Minerva House, 5 Montague Close, London, SE1 9BB
Government gives green light to HS2
Tue 10 Jan 2012
Plans to build a high-speed rail network in England have been officially approved by the government.
The HS2 project will see a 140-mile line put in place between London and Birmingham, which should be up and running by 2026. Further connections to Leeds and Manchester will then be developed and opened in 2033.
Trains capable of travelling at up to 250mph will run on the Y-shaped network. This means that the time it takes to travel from London to Birmingham will be cut to 45 minutes - almost half the current time.
Approximately 26,000 people are expected to use HS2 every hour, which should help to free up capacity on rail services that are already in place. The infrastructure upgrades could also help to ease the pressure on Britain's road network and domestic flights.
The project has been met with strong opposition in some parts of the country, with many expressing concerns about its possible environmental impact.
However, the government has confirmed that it intends to create additional tunnels along the route to mitigate the effects. Whereas 14.5 miles of the route was originally set to be "completely enclosed in tunnel or green tunnel", this has been changed to 22.5 miles.
Meanwhile, more than 56 miles will be in cutting, which should further help to reduce the "visual and noise impact" of HS2.
Justine Greening, the transport secretary, said this means more than half of the high-speed rail network will be "out of sight". As a result, she believes HS2 is able to strike a balance between the "need to keep Britain moving" and ease the "reasonable concerns" of communities living close to the planned route.
Ms Greening added that the high-speed rail network will "serve far more than the cities directly on the line", and therefore help to create jobs and stimulate economic growth across the country.
Richard Bull, a solicitor at Winckworth Sherwood, commented: "This is a red letter day for rail enthusiasts - and, arguably, for the country. Other than the HS1 line to the Channel Tunnel, the UK has not built a major new railway since the Great Central Line opened in 1899.
"The HS2 scheme cannot be accused of lacking ambition. The Y network will at its completion incorporate a direct link to the Channel Tunnel via HS1, shaving an hour off a journey from Birmingham to Paris. It will also incorporate a direct link to Heathrow.
"The project will be delivered in a phased manner with separate hybrid bills for each phase. The Department for Transport commented: 'A single hybrid bill for the entire network would risk the overall delivery of the project'. The first Bill is expected to be introduced in 2013."
