Railways: High Speed 3

Lord Holmes of Richmond Excerpts

Monday 28th July 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Holmes of Richmond]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what the timeline is for the development, construction and completion of HS3.

[Lord Popat (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have asked Sir David Higgins to produce an ambitious proposal for connecting the great northern cities. This work will look at how to bring the benefits of high-speed rail to the north more quickly, as well as initial proposals for faster east-west connections, including options on route, timescales and cost, by the time of the Autumn Statement later this year.

[Lord Holmes of Richmond (Con)]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that if combined with high-speed broadband across the region and increased capacity at Manchester Airport, High Speed 3 has the capacity to once again enable the northern cities to be economic powerhouses—a 21st-century Cottonopolis?

[Lord Popat]

My Lords, we need to unlock the economic potential of our northern cities. The cities of the north are individually strong, but collectively not strong enough. Therefore, the floating idea of the Chancellor to have an HS3 was welcomed, but we have a lot of work to do on that.