Prime minister stresses importance new high speed rail line to the north of England in his Conservative party conference speech
David Cameron defended the government鈥檚 commitment to the high-speed rail line to the north of England in his speech to the Conservative party conference this week.
In a change of emphasis, the prime minister referred to the HS2 project as a 鈥渘ew North-South railway line鈥�, which he said would resolve the rail capacity crunch facing the UK.
Focusing less on the speed of the new line and more on its capacity to bring benefits to the north of England, Cameron said: 鈥淭his country has been too London-centric for far too long. That鈥檚 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鈥� and the choice is between another old-style Victorian one 鈥� or a high speed one.
鈥淛ust imagine if someone had said, no, we can鈥檛 build the M1, or the Severn Bridge, imagine how that would be hobbling our economy today.
鈥淗S2 is about bringing North and South together in our national endeavour.鈥�
Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has used his Conservative party conference speech to launch a defence of the 拢43bn high-speed rail project.
He said he was listening to critics of the scheme and that he would 鈥渟queeze every penny of economic benefit鈥� out of the line and 鈥渃ut down on costs鈥�.