Talks will begin ‘immediately to bring high speed rail to Scotland’ after Transport Minister Keith Brown met with his Westminster counterpart.
Mr Brown was ‘disappointed’ on Tuesday to hear Westminster Secretary of State for Transport Justine Greening announce that the first phase of the new line would go only as far as Birmingham.
But in a short-notice meeting with Minister Mike Penning from the Department for Transport and rail stakeholders in Glasgow yesterday morning, Mr Brown ‘won a concession for discussions to begin right away between the HS2 delivery company and the Scottish Government on how to bring the service to Scotland’.
Mr Brown said:
“Mike Penning has agreed that HS2 will engage with the Scottish Government with immediate effect on plans for a line beyond Birmingham.
“This is good news, following the disappointment of Justine Greening’s apparent snub to Scotland during her announcement.
“The growing constraints of the West Coast Main Line can not be allowed to strangle services to Scotland.
“The Fast Track Scotland group I formed last year to champion high speed rail stated unequivocally that the case for this service is strong, but stronger still when Scotland is involved from the beginning.
“In our meeting, Mr Penning accepted that this is the case and agreed there needs to be a route north beyond the currently planned Y-shape line which will run to Birmingham and Manchester and Leeds.
“He also agreed that we have to ensure best value for money out of every penny spent and agreed that this must include Scotland.
“Aside from this – and notwithstanding any plans to extend line north – Scotland must benefit from any Barnett consequentials stemming from spending on HS2 down south.
“Scotland cannot afford to wait until these lines are underway to become involved in the talks. We need to make sure there is a detailed timetable in place for the scheme in Scotland – the current timetable of delivery long after 2033 is simply not soon enough.
“I am happy to be able to announce that, as a result of the agreement reached during the meeting, discussions will get underway to discuss the detail around the planning of the route beyond Birmingham much sooner than would otherwise have been the case and I have committed to continuing to campaign to ensure all the benefits of HS2 are fully realised in Scotland.”
Justine Greening has agreed to visit Scotland in the coming weeks.
With the majority of the owrk paid for by Westminster no doubt
Not if they go for full independance, I hope!
That chip on the Jock shoulder is going to be a greater climb than the mere hillock of Beattock summit.
Great news! This addresses my main criticisms of the plans announced this week. http://loco2.co.uk/blog/2012/01/opinion-on-hs2 Linking the north of England and Scotland must be a priority if this is going to have a real impact on the connectivity of UK cities to the rest of Europe.Â
This is great news as the High Speed project must go to Glasgow/Edinburgh..seems rather odd that it’s only going and planned to go from the English Channel to Birmingham.
Agree..bring it on and let’s go on with linking Scotland – Manchester – Northern England as well as what’s in place now (and being planned).
I hope that the line north of Birmingham is designed with the benefit of through stations on loops off the main line so that trains can save time after an intermediate call – unlike the intention at Birmingham.