High speed rail line for Yorkshire and Humber backed by MP

Rail Lines

Beverley and Holderness MP, Graham Stuart, has added his voice to growing calls for a new high speed rail link to be built linking Yorkshire and the Humber with London.

 The Government has committed itself to building a new generation of high-speed rail services. Plans unveiled earlier this month by the Transport Secretary, Lord Adonis, included:

•  The publication by the end of the year of a route from London to Birmingham, including the framework to extend the line northward to Scotland.
• Building cross-party support for the network, which could see a line to the West Midlands built by 2020.
• Running high-speed trains on the existing network, which could reduce journey times from London to Scotland to three and a half hours.
• Possibly funding the £7 billion London-to-Birmingham line with a public-private partnership.

 The Government said a line could be built further north from Birmingham towards Scotland. A number of options are being looked at, including linking the city with Manchester and the North West or alternatively with Sheffield, Leeds and the North East.

 South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority and West Yorkshire’s transport commissioners, Metro, have recently hired a consultancy firm, Arup, to build a case for a high-speed line linking London, Birmingham and Yorkshire and the Humber.

 The Conservative Party has said that it will build a £20 billion high speed rail link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Shadow Transport Secretary, Teresa Villiers MP, announced last year that £15.6 billion of public money would be spent between 2015 and 2027 on the new link. A further £4.4 billion would be paid by the private sector.

 Graham said: “We cannot allow Yorkshire to be ignored when it comes to high-speed rail travel. Our region is already poorly served by public transport links and a high-speed line is something which would make a huge difference, not just to people living in Leeds but across the whole area.

 “We need to compete with the likes of London and the South-East and the only way to do that is by investing in a transport infrastructure fit for the 21^st century.”