HS2: North of England and Scotland Debate

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Department: Department for Transport

HS2: North of England and Scotland

Lord Watts Excerpts
Thursday 23rd February 2017

(7 years, 8 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Portrait Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
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On 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.

Lord Watts Portrait Lord Watts (Lab)
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Why have the Government delayed introducing a Bill to extend the track to the north-west?

Lord Watts Portrait Lord Watts
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And Scotland.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Portrait Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
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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.