Scotland Loses with HS2
The Coalition Government’s flagship transport policy offers little to Scotland. High Speed Rail is an exceptionally expensive proposal with poor returns. Most damagingly, it is diverting attention from much needed improvements to Scotland’s existing rail network.
Constructing a dedicated high speed railway line to connect the proposed HS2 network in England to Glasgow/Edinburgh has an estimated cost of between £8 to £13 billion. This cost, equivalent to £65 to £130 million per mile of track, would be paid for by the Scottish Government.
By contrast Scotland’s rail capital budget this year is just £359 million – enough to pay for around 5.5 miles of high speed track. If Scotland scrapped every other rail improvement project and doubled its rail budget, it would still take over a decade to construct a high speed line, during which time no other project could be funded.
The report “A Better Railway for Scotland” details the difficulties raised by HS2 and suggests what a comprehensive solution for Scotland’s railways would look like.
Download the report and media release below:
A Better Railway for Scotland (1.7 MiB)
Scotland Press Release (86.8 KiB)
Comment by rae sloan on December 6, 2011 at 11:38 am
Taking fast train service at the moment, the difference in time saving London Edinburgh would be half an hour. When pointed out to Alison Monroe she said it was the potential half hour London Birmingham. By that logic there would be no time saving Birmingham to Edinburgh. What an expensive new railway for Scotland!
Comment by Douglas Evans on April 15, 2012 at 11:53 am
unwise expenditure when our National Debt is over trillion.also an attack on our beautiful coun trysides.
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