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Government rejects Lords’ HS2 criticism

In its official response to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee’s report into the Economics of High Speed 2, the government has strongly rejected the claims that a “convincing case” for the £50bn HS2 railway has not been made. 

The government said HS2 will have a transformational effect, supporting growth and increased productivity across the country, particularly in the north. It also stated that best upgrade alternative to HS2 would only provide “one more peak hour train path compared to the current timetable”. 

It added that the economic case for HS2 is clear as the central case benefit cost ratio (BCR) for the full Y-network is 2.3, including wider economic impacts - higher than for the Jubilee Line Extension and Thameslink improvement project when they were approved. 

“HS2 will create nearly 25,000 construction jobs and support up to 100,000 jobs around the stations,” said the response. “The Core Cites group suggest this figure could be as much as 400,000 jobs.” 

Concerns had been raised in March that there had not been enough evidence that HS2 would solve capacity issues, but the government said: “The West Coast Main line is now the busiest mixed use rail line in Europe. Despite a £9bn renewal and upgrade completed in 2008, the line is effectively full in terms of train paths, which restricts what services we can run and is impacting performance on both commuter and intercity services. Long distance services achieve around 85% punctuality, around four percentage points worse than the average for other long-distance services. 

“HS2 will deliver the step change in capacity we need to keep this vital artery flowing. The new high speed infrastructure will also improve reliability, giving passengers greater confidence when planning their trips.” 

The government added that without action, seating capacity will be a real issue – even if passenger growth rates turn out to be lower than we have seen over the last 20 years. 

It also stated that the full Y HS2 network represents high value for money and will deliver over £2 of benefits for every £1 invested. On top of this, the business case assumes HS2 will not charge premium fares, and shows that HS2 is economically viable without them. 

To read the full response, click here. 

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