:...The east-west
communications in this country are appalling, and they have
economic, tourism, business and heritage weaknesses built into
them. If you want to go east to west, you have to drive along the
M62. What does that do to you when you live in the north-east? So
that is transport—and do not get me on to the Transpennine Express,
which is a great misnomer...
(CB):...There is work to be done.
Currently, we are missing a plan to link HS2 to Leeds or
Liverpool—and to speed the right reverend Prelate the home. The woefully
misnamed Transpennine Express
takes, plus or minus, one and a half hours to traverse the 72
miles between two great northern cities. Moreover, the M62 is
routinely gridlocked, and many small roads between northern towns
are overloaded. Just before Christmas, it took me a miserable
three hours to travel the 16 miles by road from Leeds station to
my destination near Halifax...
(Lab):...My final comment is
that I think the biggest failure of the levelling-up agenda is
HS2, which noble Lords have heard me speak about before. It is
going to attract more people and the economy to the south-east at
a cost of £161 billion. That is a lot of money, and that excludes
a new station on the Great Western line for £7
billion, although I suppose that is a detail, and a three-year
delay at Euston. Why is the funding not going to infrastructure
in the north to help improve the railways and other
infrastructure there and in the Midlands? Very few people used
the railways in those areas even before the strikes. If the
Government want to splash £161 billion on this white elephant, it
is time they explained to those using food banks and in queues
for hospital treatment where the money could be better spent,
because in a levelling-up agenda it could be very much better
spent in the regions, and that would be much easier again if the
regions were given autonomy to receive money and funding and to
spend it as they saw fit.
To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE
