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HS2 must be for all of us

Britain's embrace of modernised transport links has been faltering and half-hearted for too long

Britain's embrace of modernised transport links in the shape of high-speed rail has been faltering and half-hearted for too long.

Margaret Thatcher's hostility to the railways and the roads lobby's pressure to build ever more motorways conspired to hold back rail development, leaving this country's network in, as Bob Crow says, the slow lane.

Motorways are increasingly overcrowded, leading to traffic jams, accidents and journey unreliability.

Rail has always offered a safer and environmentally sound alternative, but national government has hesitated to invest the sums necessary to emulate progress made in many parts of Europe.

John Major's privatisation of our railways two decades ago has made matters worse, dictated by train operating companies' short-term profits obsession.

No private consortium would be prepared to stump up the investment necessary for massive infrastructure projects such as the HS2 project that was the subject of the hybrid Bill published yesterday.

Only the state can commit such finance to a development that will take decades to deliver returns on investment.

This fact backs up Manuel Cortes's position that HS2 should be kept in the public sector and managed in such a way as to ensure that fares are affordable to the general public.

It would be criminal if massive investment by the taxpayer resulted in an elite service accessible only to the rich or people able to claim travel expenses freely.

HS2 cannot be seen as a one-off project. It ought to embody a different economic approach that is inclusive and modern.

Mick Whelan's demand for a high-speed rail network rather than a single line hits the nail on the head.

Britain's transport network needs modernisation. It also needs integration of rail, air, bus and tram links on an all-Britain basis, examining current and future needs rather than the anarchy of the market to decide on what services should be provided.

Population growth and intensified economic demand mean that there is no time to lose.

Concreting over even more of this island to provide yet more motorways and airports for domestic services would be destructive of the environment and would not provide a lasting solution.

Doubling of rail passenger numbers over the past 18 years, together with a 65 per cent increase in freight traffic, has placed great pressure on the network, which means that the introduction of new lines augmenting the network is vital.

Labour shadow transport secretary Mary Creagh is right to ignore the doomsayers Peter Mandelson and Alistair Darling and to back the HS2 project.

She is equally correct to target incompetence and mismanagement and to insist on effective government control of the HS2 budget.

Creagh will appreciate that all three main rail union leaders are, as quoted above, in full support of HS2 and impatient for real progress.

She should also note that the RMT, TSSA and Aslef general secretaries unanimously back public ownership of not only HS2 but the entire railway industry, as did Labour until it was in a position to do something about it.

Her predecessor Maria Eagle admitted to having been won round to the arguments for renationalisation, which are incontrovertible.

Persuading her party leadership to embrace this position would not only assist it electorally, matching public opinion, but might convince dubious people that investment in HS2 would benefit everyone rather than it being a cash cow milked exclusively by big business and the super-wealthy.

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