At the Tory party conference in October 2013 David Cameron claimed HS2 "is about bringing north and south together" creating centres of excellence outside London. Cameron proclaimed:"This country has been too London-centric for far too long. That’s why we need a new North-South railway line. The fact is this. The West Coast mainline is almost full. We have to build a new railway and the choice is between another old-style Victorian one – or a high speed one."
In fact a study done by the HS2 organisation in March 2012 found the greatest beneficiary of the proposed line would be London. The report states:
"It can be seen from Table 2.1 that growth from all GOR [Government Office Regions] to London is especially high, and that growth away from London, whilst not as fast is higher than between most GOR’s. This is because PDFH4.1 [the passenger demand model used in the report] associates high income elasticity on flows to London, and this elasticity increases with distance"
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| HS2 route map by Cnbrb |
The graph below shows what happens when you combine the London regions:
Daily Mail reports:
ReplyDelete"London job market steams ahead of other cities since the turn of the decade fuelling fears of an unequal economic recovery
Capital created 10 times more jobs than any other city between 2010-12
Bristol, Glasgow and Sheffield saw job opportunities shrink"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2546814/London-steams-ahead-cities-creating-10-times-jobs-place-fueling-fears-unequal-economic-recovery.html
If it was meant to benefit the north first, then the first phase would be to build the line connecting Birmingham to Leeds; then Manchester to Birmingham ... and finally Birmingham to London. But the actual phasing tells you the priorities
ReplyDeleteAnd Liverpool? The port? The country's second financial centre? 30 miles from Manchester and completely ignored.
ReplyDelete