High Speeding

Following my earlier blog post, High Speeding it out of Heathrow runway furore, with the announcement that alongside Heathrow runway three moves would be made to properly investigate a High Speed link to Heathrow and to Birmingham it appears moves to set up companies to look at other routes are well advanced.

The Times reports New fast rail-link companies set up with news that Ministers have quietly set up four more high-speed rail companies similar to the one created to look at a high speed route to Heathrow.

Companies House documents show High Speed 2 was formed last week, and has two senior civil servants, Robert Linnard and Timothy Well-burn, as directors. They are also directors of four more High Speed companies, numbers 3 to 6, set up at the same time.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article5537004.ece

Meanwhile building.co.uk reports that the cost of high speed to Scotland will cost vastly more than the estimated £20bn. Daver Darnell, rail sector director of WSP Group who has worked on Crossrail and Thameslink projects is reported as stating the cost of High Speed is likely to be £40bn citing the example of Thameslink which was costed at £580m but came in at £4bn.

Darnell also questioned the validity of a hub at Heathrow whn most successful rail interchanges had been built in the centre of cities. And he said that more investment in reliability, capacity and commuter services would benefit more people than a high-speed link (sic).

http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3131732&c=0