Extract from Lords debate on the Queen's Speech: Great Western - May 17
Tuesday, 18 May 2021 08:39
Lord Snape (Lab):...One thing lacking in the Queen’s Speech is any
detail about the future of the eastern leg of HS2. I hope that the
Minister will agree that, if we are to—in the phrase used in the
Speech—“build back better” through our transport industries, HS2,
particularly its eastern leg, will properly be built. However, I
fear that what will happen is what we are seeing at present. The
Treasury, which, I suspect, is not madly enthusiastic about the
prospect of HS2, will tinker...Request free trial
(Lab):...One thing lacking in the Queen’s Speech is any
detail about the future of the eastern leg of HS2. I hope that the
Minister will agree that, if we are to—in the phrase used in the
Speech—“build back better” through our transport industries, HS2,
particularly its eastern leg, will properly be built. However, I
fear that what will happen is what we are seeing at present. The
Treasury, which, I suspect, is not madly enthusiastic about the
prospect of HS2, will tinker at the edges. We are seeing that
tinkering at present—a platform less at Euston; rather than one
Bill to take the eastern leg forward towards Leeds and beyond, two
or three short Bills for short stretches of HS2. Do we never learn?
When it is eventually built, as I hope it will be, it will
therefore cost far more than building it in one swoop, which would
be the intelligent way forward. We never seem to learn that lesson.
Teams with experience in electrification and railway building are
continually disbanded and reformed. We then wonder why, in the case
of the Great Western electrification, the
posts and masts cost more to install than previous electrification
schemes in this country and certainly far more than such schemes in
other parts of the world...
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