High-speed Rail

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Tuesday 10th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement on high-speed rail. She will presumably agree—certainly with regard to phase 1—that commuters travelling from Leicester train station in my constituency will see no direct advantage, although I appreciate that phase 2 may be different. She will be aware that many of those commuters have been hoping for the electrification of the midland main line. Given her remark that she is ruling out short-term fixes, is she now saying there is no possibility whatever of electrification of the midland main line in the foreseeable future?

[Justine Greening]

No, I am not. We have the HLOS2 process, by which we can consider all such things. Again, I would encourage the hon. Gentleman to look at the Network Rail report, which is very clear-cut about some of the pressures there will be on the midland main line if we do not go ahead with High-Speed 2.