Dizano News – Former Labour chancellor and transport secretary says project could have a catastrophic impact on other transport investment .
Alistair Darling warned against ‘visionary’ schemes such as HS2. ‘Tranport, like banking, is at its best when it’s boring,’ he said. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Alistair Darling, the Labour former chancellor and transport secretary, said on Friday he had changed his mind about the HS2 high-speed rail project and that it should be abandoned.
In an article in the Times and an interview on the Today programme, he said the escalating costs of the scheme to link London with the north of England meant it was no longer value for money, and it could have a catastrophic impact on other transport investment.
Arguing that the money could be better spent elsewhere, he asked: “If you gave England’s biggest cities £10bn each for economic development, would they spend it on HS2?”
The government and Labour both support HS2, but parliament is yet to pass the legislation that would allow the project to go ahead. With costs rising and opposition to the project increasing, there has been speculation it could be ditched after the next general election.
Darling’s intervention is particularly significant because he used to run the Department for Transport and was chancellor when the last Labour government backed the idea in 2010.
“The case then was just about stateable,” he said. “However, what’s changed my mind is principally the cost, because it’s gone from £30bn to £50bn, and recent reports suggest it might even be as high as £70bn.
“My principal concern is that if you spend this money on this one railway line, then we will not have the money on maintaining and upgrading existing lines, such as the east coast line, the line to Bristol, the commuter lines and so on.
“My experience as transport secretary is if you do not spend money on upgrading and improving the track and the trains, then eventually things will start falling apart, as they did in the mid 1990s, and that would be catastrophic.”
Darling said that although ministers get excited about “visionary” schemes like HS2, he had learned to become wary of them in office. “Transport, rather like banking, is at its best when it is boring,” he said. “That is when it tends to work. Political visions can easily become nightmares.”
He criticised the fact that HS2 would start from Euston in London, instead of linking up with the existing high-speed line that runs from the Channel Tunnel to St Pancras. He also said the money could be better spent elsewhere.
“The English regions have lagged behind London and the south-east and Scotland in terms of growth. They could well do with £50bn of investment. I’d guess that they would spend it on smaller-scale investment, on housing or transport.
“It’s not just the railways. Road improvements are needed too, as well as spending to upgrade bus services and cycle routes.”
Lord Mandelson, the former Labour business secretary, has also spoken against HS2 and Darling’s comments will increase speculation that Ed Miliband may abandon his support for the project too.
Miliband, however, has appointed Lord Adonis, a keen supporter of HS2, to lead his growth review. On Friday a senior Labour source said the party remained very supportive of the project, although he added that it was keeping an eye on the costs.
Source Theguardian
Source: Scrap HS2, says Alistair Darling
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