HS2: North of England and Scotland Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Watts
Main Page: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Watts's debates with the Department for Transport
(7 years, 8 months ago)
Lords ChamberOn faster services from London to Scotland—and that includes to the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh—once the second phase of HS2 is complete, we are talking of journey times of three hours and 40 minutes. The noble Lord is right to raise the issue of infrastructure, particularly in terms of the tracks themselves running in the northern part to Scotland. We are working with northern powerhouse rail, to which I alluded earlier, and indeed Transport Scotland to see what further work can be done to reduce journey times. The aspiration, of course, is to reduce the journey time to below three hours.
Why have the Government delayed introducing a Bill to extend the track to the north-west?
I do not think that this is about delays. I am sure that the noble Lord heard the Lord Speaker announce the fact that today we received Royal Assent for the first part of HS2. It is important that work gets under way in that regard and we will bring forward legislation on phases 2A and 2B of Network Rail later this year, I hope.