Does Britain need high speed rail?

Abstract

Until recently, British governments have been sceptical about the case for construction of high speed rail lines, but by 2009 all three major parties supported the concept, and in March 2010 the government published details of the proposed route for a high speed line from London to Birmingham ("HS2"), with connections to the existing network to allow faster journey times to Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow. Following the general election in May 2010, the new coalition government committed to a larger project, with a network linking London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, together with links to Heathrow Airport and the existing high speed line to the channel tunnel. The supporters of high speed rail argue that the project has a number of major benefits for Britain: (1) Conventional transport economic benefits, as a result of time savings and congestion relief; (2) Environmental benefits, particularly as a result of substitution of rail for air travel; (3) The provision of additional capacity to meet rapidly growing rail demand; (4) Regeneration of the North of England, reducing the North-South divide in Britain. The evidence for each of these claimed benefits is reviewed, together with experience from high speed rail projects elsewhere in the world. The review concludes that there is no strong case for construction of the HS2 project.