黑洞社区

The former chair of HS2 has said pulling the plug on the scheme would risk the UK slipping behind its peers because crucial infrastructure here is not up to scratch.

David Higgins 鈥� who stepped down last year after four years in the role 鈥� told 黑洞社区 in an interview that the government needed to keep its nerve and commit to building the line, the first phase of which will run from London to Birmingham.

The former Network Rail chief executive said: 鈥淧eople forget how bad and how challenging it is to run the existing network.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an unbelievably difficult network to run, and West Coast in particular 鈥� its alignment, gauge, embankments, cuttings, tunnels are 180 years old so it will never be modern [鈥�] Now you either replace it with HS2, or you replace it with HS2 in 20 years鈥� time and pay three times the price.

鈥淚f we need to compete in an external world, we need everything to work here and the idea that [we can when] we have a 180-year-old railway line creaking at the seams 鈥� which I know, because I ran it 鈥揫then] it鈥檚 just impossible to think we have any chance of competing internationally when we have such poor infrastructure.

鈥淚t鈥檚 why we need decent 5G; it鈥檚 why we need decent airport capacity in the South-east. We can鈥檛 afford to have substandard infrastructure when we are in a highly competitive external world.鈥�

He added: 鈥淭he need to rebalance the economy is overwhelming and in a post-Brexit world it鈥檚 even more important. The country needs to just get on with it. It should just stop anguishing over something and get behind a major project and see it finished properly.鈥�

The 拢56bn scheme, originally budgeted at 拢32bn, has come under fresh scrutiny in recent months following the spiralling costs of the Crossrail route in London. Some MPs are demanding the HS2 project be scrapped and concerns about costs have been raised by Andrea Leadsom, leader of the House of Commons, and former foreign secretary Boris Johnson.

Liz Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury, has warned that this year鈥檚 Spending Review will be 鈥渆xamining all major investment projects鈥�, adding that 鈥渨e must be prepared to junk the white elephants鈥�. 

This week Alistair Darling, who signed off on Crossrail when he was transport secretary, joined the list of HS2 sceptics when he told 黑洞社区: 鈥淚t would be better to spend the money on improving lines in the Midlands and the North-east and west of England and their links to the East Coast.

鈥淪maller-scale projects are easier to manage and, importantly, deliver on time and cost.鈥� 

But Higgins鈥� replacement at HS2, Sir Terry Morgan 鈥� the former Crossrail chair who was forced out of both roles at the end of last year over the scale of delays and cost overruns at Crossrail 鈥� said the scheme would get built.

鈥淭his has the support of government and Labour and that鈥檚 so important. Yes, you鈥檝e got constituency MPs who continue to talk about the impact it鈥檚 going to have on their own constituencies, but that鈥檚 always the case with big projects. Once you start going, I think people will start to appreciate that there鈥檚 a huge benefit to this degree of inward investment.鈥�

HS2鈥檚 chief executive, Mark Thurston, has said ways to save money on the scheme could include reducing the number and speed of trains.

But Morgan said: 鈥淚f you reduce the frequency of trains it compromises the business case.鈥� 

He added: 鈥淭here鈥檚 no doubt in my mind at all that the project team are working on the basis that there鈥檚 no more money and so they are looking at innovative ways of trying to get the same solution but within that funding envelope that鈥檚 available to them.鈥�

Morgan said the challenge of building a new station at Euston is 鈥渜uite immense鈥� and suggested leaving it out of the first phase of works 鈥渕ight give the programme benefit by taking some of the pressure on the timing issues around doing the work at Euston鈥�.

Yesterday, HS2 awarded the contracts to build new stations at Euston and Old Oak Common to teams led by Mace and Balfour Beatty respectively. The two jobs have a combined pricetag of around 拢2.6bn.