Confirmation that the HS2 rail
link between London and Birmingham would go ahead earlier this month was met
with little applause.
Many people have slammed the
government project due to the routes cutting through “areas of outstanding
national beauty” and the plans had to be adjusted last minute in a ditch effort
to get the plans past parliament.
Indeed, the majority of
disgruntled peoples who object to the scheme fall under that umbrella acronym
of NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard), being persons who would normally encourage the
development of such a (rail) infrastructure and yet refuse to show support as
it may disrupt their lives ever so slightly.
My issue is to the contrary. The
HS2 link does not go far enough.
Rail travel within Britain, where
the mode was first pioneered, has become slow and unreliable. The passengers
who depend on the rail links are subject to overcrowded carriages, infrequent
trains and expensive costs. Most of the UK system still runs on lines that were
introduced in the late Victorian era, and this is not suitable for a 21st
century country.
High speed rail has been
expanding across the EU since the 1980s and has had significant investment in
France, Germany and Spain, amongst others. Routes available on high speed
service across mainland Western Europe is unrivalled on this continent; yet
even within Germany before full roll-out, there are plans and schemes for Maglev-esque
vehicles, increasing speed, efficiency and lowering costs by reducing friction.
 |
| Europe Railways in 2011, highlighting major high-speed investment in France, Spain and Germany. |
Yet Britain appears completely
unconcerned with the benefits that a modern rail system provides.
The small scale expansion into
High Speed rail was introduced by the channel tunnel as recently as 2007 –
seemingly forced by Europe as trains on the French side of the channel were
capable of performing at speeds almost double the London-Folkestone average.
For no real reason other than lack of investment.
Promise of the first major
expansion to Birmingham is not to be operational until 2026. Any further links,
preliminarily to Manchester and Leeds, will not open until 2034 at the
earliest. The chances of this type of rail reaching Scotland before the 2040s?
Remote to non-existent. There is a real lax approach as to the implementation
of the scheme as a whole.
It is confounding how a line that
promises a 50 minute reduction between London and Manchester and an hour
reduction between London and Leeds is not being capitalised upon sooner.
Already, the Birmingham link
alone is projected to generate some £43.7billion of wider economic benefits and
generate £27billion in rail fares on these lines alone. Not to mention that the
need for a wide spread introduction of the links, in every aspect from
administration, to HR, to contracting, could create countless jobs at a time of
severe economic crisis.
Longterm, the service would offer
job migration. A person living in Manchester could work in London. A person
living in Glasgow could work in Manchester. It opens up an entirely new field
of connections and job prospects in areas of the country that were once
reserved for those within a certain radius. Let’s face it, if Scotland becomes
independent, Edinburgh will need a high speed link to London and from there to
Europe. Current travel time between London and Edinburgh sits at an unappealing
4.5-5hours. With HS2, that could become 2.5 hours.
Moreover, the lack of enthusiasm
for quick installation is unnerving. Firstly, the current proposals do not
integrate the line into the National Rail system completely, having the
Birmingham terminus exist in its own self-contained unit instead of arriving
into Birmingham New Street, the central transit hub of the West Midland city.
Further, as previously mentioned,
other European countries are already abandoning this train of thought in favour
of other more advantageous railway systems: notably, the greener, more
efficient and more cost effective Mag-lev, which is becoming the norm in Japan
and a sensation in China.
Where might this innovative
infrastructure have been tested then I hear you ask? None other than
Birmingham, UK.
By the time the High Speed Line
in its current incarnation is implemented to anywhere near the capacity
required of the British public, it will already be defunct and an obsolete
antique before introduction. The entire system need be bypassed in favour of
more cutting edge and innovative means of transport.
If sufficient hands were
contracted, lines connecting London to Glasgow, via Birmingham and Manchester,
and London to Edinburgh, via York and Newcastle are not out of the question
before 2025-2030. Yet the government is unwilling to invest in its own country,
whilst the British railway, jewel of Victorian invention, is set to innovate
countless people’s lives across the world before the decade is out.
With many lines already operating
at over 80% of capacity at morning peak, High Speed is the only way to ensure
the country keeps moving.
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