According to the Volterra report commissioned by Core Cities, based on research undertaken by Oxford Economics, an additional 400,000 jobs in core cities and a total of 1 million in their wider urban areas will be underpinned by high-speed rail. Under such conditions, the UK economy will see GDP growth of up to 3% in the areas affected by high-speed rail, and an expected local wage increase of between 1.06% and 2.7%.
Government has set out its strategy to improve north-south connectivity within the UK, focussed on a ‘Y’ shaped national high speed rail network. The first phase of this network will connect London with the West Midlands by 2026. In November the Transport Select Committee reported their findings on the case for HS2.
What are the benefits of HS2?
- The Government's analysis shows that the proposed network will deliver benefits to the economy worth £44bn as well as fare revenues of £27bn, set against its overall cost of £32bn;
- Research indicates the Government’s calculation of benefit is conservative and that the eastern route alone would deliver £60bn of standard transport benefits, and boost business productivity by over £2.5bn.
- Our cities would be effectively brought closer together, with journey times between Leeds and London shrinking by an hour, and also dramatically reduced business journey times between two of the country’s largest financial districts (Docklands and Leeds) in 99 minutes.
- Lessons from international experience show that the cities which have benefited the most from high speed rail also have good connections to local transport networks, have supportive local development plans, and have a strong service sector and that high speed rail helps this sector to grow.
- Evidence from France shows that high speed rail has not resulted in a concentration of activity in major centres at the expense of other towns and cities served. In fact it has been estimated that by boosting business connectivity, HSR services to Leeds and Sheffield would attract up to 50,000 jobs to the region.
- The existing intercity, inter-regional and local rail network is running out of spare capacity. A high speed rail network would accommodate the combined projected business and leisure demand for rail travel down the east coast, to the Capital, Heathrow and mainland Europe.
- Capacity freed up on the existing intercity rail network would enable better commuting services to centres not served by High Speed Rail and more capacity for the movement of freight.